The Dead Heart Beats or maybe Opposites Attract
by gezundheit
Summary: fun Nico story where he gets a girlfriend whos his opposite
1. Chapter 1

Nico's POV

It was a year after the victory over Gaea and the giants. Leo had come back with Calypso, and the rest of the seven had practically strangled him to death. Greeks and Romans frequently moved between camps, visiting and making friends.

In two days, there was going to be a huge party celebrating the victory at Camp Jupiter, and Nico was excited, although he tried to hide it. He had a scary reputation to keep up here.

Percy and Annabeth were going to the party, then staying at Camp Jupiter for college in New Rome. Some Romans were coming to Camp Half Blood to visit, while some Greeks were planning on visiting Camp Jupiter. Nico was happy to be able to see Jason again. He had been at Camp Jupiter for the last six months, but after the party he was returning to New York. Leo and Calypso were even taking a break from their world trip and going to the party.

Nico had been at Camp Half Blood since the victory over Gaea, and he'd made a lot of friends since then. He knew that people accepted him, despite whatever he thought. He was on good terms with most everyone. That didn't start until after the Stolls learned not to prank him…

Kole's POV

Camp Jupiter was filled with people carrying balloons, streamers, banners and a ton of other cheesy party stuff. Which of course, Kole had no problem with. After all, as a daughter of Mercury, she had a thing for cheesy party stuff. She planned to go to Camp Half Blood after the party, because she had heard there were some crazy pranksters there. But mostly, because she wanted a second chance. She'd been at Camp Jupiter, a full member of the legion, for four years, and she still had no friends. She was always on her best behavior, and she even tried to be the one to talk to the new kids. Sure, everyone liked her, but she had no real friends. No one to fight beside.

-the passage of time-

Nico's POV

Nico had ridden with the first group of demigods in their mega pegasus chariot caravan thing, and he was one of the first demigods on the ground when they landed in Camp Jupiter. Jason came barreling out of the crowd almost immediately, his blue eyes bright under his glasses. He paused in front of Nico, and extended a hand to shake, but Nico gave him a hug. Jason grinned hugely.

Unfortunately, the Stolls came down next. They busted out a huge confetti bomb over everyone, and Nico death glared at them when rainbow sparkles settled in his hair. A Roman girl whooped and ran up to the Stolls. She was thoroughly covered in glitter.

"That was freaking awesome! I made grenades just like that!" she shouts. The Stolls look at each other and grin simultaneously.

"I love this girl!" They said in unison. "Are you a Hermesian?" Connor exclaimed.

"Kole, daughter of Mercury, at your service." The girl bowed.

"Awesooooome new sister!" Travis high fived his brother. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he moved, he slipped and fell on his butt, his twin landing on top of him.

"Slip Slime!" the girl, Kole, held up a bottle of green stuff.

"I formally challenge you to a prank war, sister." Connor said, somehow managing to get up.

"I formally accept." Kole said. She shook Connor's hand. When she let go, Connor had gross sticky stuff dripping from his hand. He tried to wipe it on the girl, but she dodged, and he only managed to fall over again. Kole cracked up.

Nico rolled his eyes. Great. Another prankster.

"How you been, man?" Jason asked. "How's camp?"

"Awesome. I'm doing all those training things at camp, and I'm pretty wicked with a sword now." Nico replied.

"That's really good. I'm glad your settling in well. Now is my brother from another mother here?" Jason asked.

"I'm guessing you mean Percy…" Nico said.

"Yeah." Jason laughed.

"He should be on the next load. Him and Annabeth have a ton of stuff cause they're staying for college after the party."Nico explained.

Kole's POV

Kole liked her two new brothers. She was going to enjoy the prank war. They probably wouldn't…

After hours of happy reunions, they all got settled at tables for the feast. Kole put her genius pudding cushions on the Stoll's chairs, and when they got up and started dancing around and laughing at each other's pudding butts. Kole grinned when they glared at her. Travis hurled a cheeseburger through a wind spirit at her, but it just split apart and hit three different people.

Three and a half seconds later, the entire forum is filled with flying food objects, laughing Greeks and pizza flavored Romans. Apparently the Greeks had practice with food fights, because they never missed and hardly ever got hit. Kole and the Stolls started running around and smashing food into people's hair. Then dodging punches.

After a while Reyna stood up. She had a pancake on top of her head, barbecue sauce smeared down one cheek, peanut butter in her braid, and an entire slice of bread stuck to her arm. "Order! I am calling order!" she yelled. Someone threw a pie into her face. It slid down slowly, smearing whip cream all over her face, revealing her angry face. "OH THAT'S IT." She screamed, grabbing a turkey out of nowhere and throwing it at whoever had thrown the pie. Then she started rocketing cupcakes everywhere.

A huge cheer rose up from the crowd as the war started back up. This time, no one was spared, not even the Greeks.

Nico's POV

Nico couldn't help but join in the food fight. He shadow traveled around and dumped milkshakes down people's backs, then disappeared, making them attack the person behind them. A random kid stood up on his couch and screamed "Harleyopolis!" Nico squished a plate of mashed potatoes into his hair then disappeared.

It lasted almost two hours. It ended with everyone on the ground, laughing and covered in food. Then Kole threw something into the air. "She's gonna blow!" The girl screamed, a huge grin on her face. Then the little ball exploded, launching sparkles and confetti everywhere. When the cloud settled, everyone was covered in sparkles, which stuck to the food all over them.

Nico collapsed into his bunk at the end of the day, in the temporary barracks built for the Greeks on the Field of Mars.

After the food fiasco, there'd been more 'fun' in the bathhouse, where everyone went after dinner. Then there was another prank, and all in all, it was almost midnight and Nico was exhausted.

The next morning, everyone who was going back to Camp Half Blood gathered back in the forum which had miraculously been cleaned. Nico cringed when he spotted Kole in the crowds. After long goodbyes, the pegasi chariots took off.

"Goodbye, good people of Rome!" Kole shouted. Then she set off a Skittles grenade and showered them all. "Taste the Rainbow!"

They were in New York before anyone could even shake their fist at her.

Kole's POV

Camp Half Blood was amazing. Kole got a tour from the Stolls, which was a good opportunity to run a few popcorn bombs and more Slip Slime. When they stopped in front of the Hermes cabin, Connor and Travis turned to her with serious expressions.

"You know what will make us admit you're the best prankster?" Connor asked.

"What?" Kole was getting excited.

"If you-" Travis said.

"Prank Death Breath-" Connor added.

"Without getting killed." Travis finished.

"You mean that son of Hades? The Nico kid?" Kole asked.

"Yes. We did it once, and barely escaped with our lives." Connor said solemnly.

"Okay. I'll do it." Kole said, rubbing her hands together.

They all went into the cabin together, and Kole sat in her bunk plotting for an hour before lights out.


	2. Chapter 2

Kole's POV

The next morning, Kole followed Nico. He didn't even notice, that's how good she was. She figured out from a few sources what he normally did. The other Hermes kids were eager to help, and she guessed it was because they wanted to see her creamed by Death Boy. She met Leo and they cracked some jokes together, and then Leo helped her out with her secret project. A necessary element to her prank.

Finally, the moment of truth had arrived! Nico was taking his usual morning walk through the woods, and Kole was stalking him slowly from behind, sparkle, glue, and popcorn grenades in hand. She threw the popcorn bomb, making Nico veer to the side and look around. He stepped right onto the glue bomb, and a second later he was covered in glue. Then she primed the sparkle bomb and rolled it into the clearing. Nico watched as it rolled between his feet, and his eyes widened with realization.

"N-!" he was cut off by the beautiful explosion of sparkles. He started running away, and he stepped right on the pressure plate that triggered the net Leo made. A moment later, Kole had a neatly wrapped son of Hades. Unfortunately for Nico, the net was also full of rotten bananas, so every time he moved, they squished all over him.

"You got a little somethin right there.." Kole stepped into the clearing. "And there. And there. And there. And- ya know what, your completely covered in little somethins." She said, grinning. Nico glared at her.

"When I get outta this, you're gonna wish you were dead…" he growled.

"Um, I think ya mean if you get outta that. Its Celestial bronze, which means you can't shadow travel out of it." Kole said matter of factly.

"Wow. I can't believe you actually thought of that." Nico looked genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, well. I'm not like those idiot Stolls. I got some stuff inside here." She pointed at her own head.

"_When _I get out I am gonna chase you down and do… something bad…. That you won't like…." Nico stuttered.

"I think I may let you out just to see what it is you think you can do to me." Kole said thoughtfully.

"I like that plan. You should totally do that." Nico nodded enthusiastically, which is pretty hard when you're hanging upside down in a net.

"Okay. I will then." Kole smiled, then cut the line holding Nico up. He smashed into the ground and looked up just in time to see her slide on a bracelet and disappear.

"Come and get me Death Boy! Come on!" Kole taunted. Nico growled and got up. A grenade rolled over and bumped into his foot.

Nico's POV

Okay, Nico was really mad now. He appreciated the careful planning of this girl, and he had to admit that she was pretty cute, with her flashing dark eyes and shaggy chocolate hair, but he did not like being sparkly. That was where he drew the line. Popcorn and Skittles he could handle, but sparkles? He was ready to send skeletons after this girl.

Then of course, she had to turn invisible and drop another bomb. Nico bent down and grabbed the bomb, but unfortunately he wasn't fast enough. It detonated and released a horrible, terrifying wave of….mustaches? Everything within a ten foot diameter was completely covered in different color mustaches, some hairy and long, some smooth and short. Nico had two pink mustaches right over his eyebrows, and a neon orange one hanging off his ear.

The sound of Kole's laughter echoed around him. And Nico had an idea. He spread out his hands and made the ground rumble. He heard footsteps, but they stopped soon after they started.

"Over here!" Nico spun around to see Kole twelve feet off the ground in a tree. Then she disappeared and some branches rustled. He followed the moving branches, but then she appeared behind him and dropped onto his shoulders. Nico smashed into the ground and almost brained himself on a tree, but Kole flipped him around at the last second.

Nico was now laying on his back in a pile of leaves, and Kole sat on his chest. She grinned at him, her dark eyes mischievous. Nico groaned.

"Oh, quit complaining Death Boy." She sighed.

"I can't- breathe." Nico complained, just to be spiteful.

"Now, you have some choices here. You can go back to camp with the sparkles, just for a few minutes, and then I'll give you the stuff- the only stuff- that cleans off the glue. Or, you can try to fight or hide or whatever, and you'll never get the stuff and I'll prank you to the Underworld. Your choice." Kole pulled out a small glass bottle.

"How about option three?" Nico said. She just had time to look confused before he thrust her off of him. She smashed into a tree and stumbled through a thorn bush, and Nico went for the bottle. "In this option, I drag you through a puddle of mud and back to camp, where I hang you off the roof of my cabin."

"I don't really like that one…" Kole said as she took off running through the woods. She dropped grenades and bottles of Slip Slime practically every step. Nico leaped through the clear areas, barreling after her.

He almost crashed right into her, she stopped so suddenly.

"You are in so much-" Nico growled.

"Shut up. I heard something."Kole held up a hand.

"Yeah, probably the sound of me-" Nico was cut off when Kole spun around and body slammed him sideways. Where he'd stood a second before, a snake head smashed into the ground. Kole whipped out a keychain, which transformed into a sword, and lopped the snake in two.

"What the- how did you know that was coming? You just- you saved me fro-" Nico began.

"I heard a hissing sound and figured it would go for you first, because you're the most threatening. Then it was just the simple matter of smashing you out of the way and saving you from getting your head beat open by a flying snake." Kole shrugged. Nico noticed that she kept her sword out, and her eyes were flicking around, studying for any more threats.

"Why am I the most threatening?" Nico asked. He was curious about that.

"You're like six foot and ripped and I'm like five six and way too skinny. Of course you're the most threatening." She said it like it was obvious.

"Oh." Nico said. He didn't realize how much this girl noticed and paid attention too.

"Its instinct. You need it when you live on the str- when you're a demigod." Kole hastily corrected. Nico could hardly hate her anymore. He understood her pranks now. She was like Leo, trying to hide the pain with humor. "Anyway, we might want to get back to camp before the snake king attacks us."

"What's the snake king?" Nico asked. Then he found out. The snake looked like a diamondback, but it was probably twenty feet around and fifty feet long. Its hood spread out when it reared up, hissing.

"That, is the snake king." Kole said. Then she burst into action. She blocked the snakes teeth, avoided its rattle, and managed to get some hits on it all at once. Her blade glanced off its huge scales at first, but when it shot it's head down to try to eat her whole, she somehow managed to stab it in the eye. It pulled back, hissing in pain, and started thrashing around, trying to get her off its head. She hadn't let go of her sword, and when the snake reared back, she had clambered onto the top of its flat head.

Nico just stood there, gaping like an idiot. He'd never seen anyone fight like that before, just leaping into battle and somehow predicting her opponents every move. She stabbed her sword into the snakes other eye, then slammed her sword down into its skull. The snake screamed and thrashed even more, throwing Kole off of its head. She smashed into a tree with a sickening thud, and the snake collapsed, dissolving into powder.

The whole fight had only lasted about five minutes.

Kole's POV

Nico hadn't been much help in the fight with the snake. He just stood there, gaping like a moron, while Kole beat it up. He also just stood there when she slammed into a tree ten feet in the air, broke three ribs, then came crashing through branches and landing in a bush.

After the snake dissolved, Nico came barreling toward Kole. She groaned and started trying to pull herself up, but it was kind of painful. When Nico got there and knelt beside her, he saw the bloody hole in her side. The snake had gotten her, a glancing blow when it lunged.

"I can't take you seriously with the mustache, dude." She said. Nico could tell she was desperately clinging to consciousness.

"Well whose fault is that?" Nico scooped her into his arms.

"I can walk myself you know." She protested.

"Mhm." Nico didn't even look at her. Then she passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

She woke up in the Big House, on a couch in some room that she'd never been in before. A medicine pouch sat on the coffee table next to the couch. No one else was in the room. She tried to sit up, and only managed to groan and move her head.

The sound drew someone's attention, and Kole heard footsteps coming toward her room. A redhead girl stuck her head in the room, saw that Kole was awake, and shouted, "Chiron! She's awake!" Then she walked into the room. "Hey, I'm Rachel Dare. Nico dumped you here about three hours ago. Apparently whatever you fought was poisonous. Oh yeah, and did you do that to Nico? All the mustaches and the sparkles and bananas and stuff?"

"Why yes, yes it was." She grinned maniacally.

"No one has managed to land anything on Nico without getting skeletons set on their tail before!" Rachel laughed. "You got him pretty good!"

"Well I saved his butt after that, so that might be part of it." Kole admitted.

Then Chiron walked in. Kole had seen centaurs before, but most of them were evil, so Chiron was still pretty impressive to her.

"Ah, you awake at last. How are you feeling, my girl?" He asked, crossing the room and picking up the medicine pouch.

"Well I just got launched ten feet off a giant snake into a tree and bitten, but other than that, I'm totally great."Kole said, with a perfect poker face. Rachel stifled a laugh.

"Well in that case, just have some nectar and drink this." Chiron held out a little glass vial.

"Um, what is it? My mom told me not to drink potions from strange centaurs."Kole said, her eyes wide in a fake innocence look.

Chiron sighed. Rachel giggled. "It's an antidote for the poison. Which apparently, even though it normally is fatal, can't even stop you from cracking jokes with every breath."

"Well in that case, hand it over, horse man." Kole held out a hand. Chiron set the bottle in her palm, and she downed it all at once. She made a face and set the bottle down. "Tastes like essence of hydra fart." She stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose.

Then Nico stuck his head into the room. "Is she dead yet?" he asked.

"Nope. Takes more than a forty foot snake to take me out." Kole glared at him. "Did you dye your hair? It looks great." Nico's hair was still covered in sparkles and it was sticking out all around his head.

"Very funny." Nico said. "Anyway, all the others are waiting for Chiron to come out and do his hoof bang start the party thing for campfire."

"I will be there in a moment. I just need to make sure this young lady doesn't kill herself." Chiron said, pulling out a plastic bag of ambrosia.

"Good luck with that." Nico rolled his eyes and left.

"He's a real angel." Kole said.

"Give him a break. He's had a tough life." Rachel said.

"Yeah, well so have I. I'm teaching him to have fun. If someone would've done that for me, I would've been a lot better off." Kole said, serious for once. "Anyways, this campfire wouldn't happen to involve s'mores, would it? Cause I freaking love those things."

"As it happens, they do happen to have s'mores." Chiron said. "Follow me. But eat this first." He tossed Kole the bag, and she swallowed the ambrosia quickly, then stood up. She almost fell right back down again, but Rachel caught her.

"You sure you're ready to move?" Rachel asked, concerned.

"If it's moving toward s'mores, I'm always ready to move." Kole said.

Nico's POV

Of course he would never admit it, but Nico was glad Kole was okay. He was still mad at her for the sparkly mustache explosion, but at least now he knew she had a (somewhat) serious side. He had gotten kind of worried when he saw how bad here gaping snake bite was, and the fact that he sensed the death the snake had caused with its poison. But of course, she was fine, because she was a stubborn little-

"WOOOOOOOOHOOOOO!" The entire Hermes cabin stood up and started cheering when Kole showed up and started towards the amphitheater. She grinned hugely and took a bow. Nico didn't know if anyone else noticed her wince. Connor and Travis ran to the front of the Hermes cabin and they each raised one of her arms in victory.

"The best prankster ever!" They shouted. More cheering. Kole was shoved into the front seat, closest to the fire in the center of the amphitheater.

"Campers!" Chiron banged his hoof onto the marble floor. Everyone shut up pretty fast. "As you all know, tomorrow is Friday. Which means-"

"CAPTURE THE FLAG!" everyone shouted at once.

"Yes, that." Chiron smiled. "But for now, we'll have our songs and s'mores." The fire burned bright yellow and huge, because everyone was in a good mood.

After the campfire, Nico went back to his cabin, and again tried to wash the sparkles out of his hair. It didn't work. "Uuuuuhg. When I get my hands on her…." He left his cabin in search of Kole.

She wasn't in the Hermes cabin, so Nico went to check in the Big House next. He knocked on the door, and when no one answered, he just walked in. He heard hushed whispers in the other room and poked his head in to see Chiron and Rachel talking urgently. Chiron pointed into the next room, and Nico went in.

Kole was lying on a couch, wrapped in blankets. She was sweaty and pale, her slim body shaking violently.

"What the- what happened?" Nico asked, coming around and sitting on the coffee table beside her.

"Uh, I got attacked by a freaking fifty foot long snake." She said.

"But I thought you were okay? You seemed fine at the campfire." Nico was confused.

"Yeah, well." She couldn't really shrug, but she tried.

"So, um-" Nico shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"Oh yeah, here's the glue remover stuff. Come here." Kole waved him over. Nico stood beside the couch. She grabbed his jacket and pulled him down, then dumped the bottle out on his head. His hair fixed itself automatically, and Kole ruffled it. "See? All better." She said. "Although, I gotta say, you look pretty good with sparkle hair." Kole grinned.

Chiron walked in, holding his medicine pouch. "Sorry Nico, I need you to leave." Chiron said bluntly.

"Oh. Okay." As Nico left, he whispered to Chiron, "You can fix her right?"

"I hope so. I really hope so." Chiron said solemnly. That didn't make Nico feel any better.

He went back to his cabin after that, but it took him a while to get to sleep. He would never say it aloud, but he was kinda worried.

The next morning at breakfast, Kole was nowhere to be seen. Nico wanted to go to the Big House and see if she was okay, but he didn't want to seem to attached to her. The last thing he needed being teased for a nonexistent crush. He was reassured, though, when later that day the Stolls came out of the Big House covered in blue mustaches. But then again, just because she was still pulling pranks didn't mean she was okay, as proven by the campfire.

Finally, during free time, Nico went to find Chiron at the archery range. "So, uh, is Kole okay?" He asked.

"She almost died last night while I was trying to get out a shard of snake fang, but she seems to be better today. She needs to be in bed for another day, but somehow I don't think that will happen." Chiron shot an arrow straight through the bull's eye. "You might want to go check on her."

"Why me?" Nico asked.

"I'm giving you an excuse because I know you don't want to seem to attached to her." Chiron looked Nico in the eye.

"Oh." Nico fought down a blush, then ran off.

He found Kole lying on the couch, throwing Skittles into the air and catching them in her mouth. "Having fun?" he asked. She jumped, and her orange Skittle hit her in the eye and bounced off.

"Ow. And yes, I am having so much fun. Sitting here in bed all day and drinking hydra farts? What's not to like?" She smiled sarcastically.

"Oh good. I thought you might be bored." Nico said, faking a relieved expression. "Chiron sent me to check on you. He said you almost died last night."

"What? Yeah, I almost die all the time. It's a favorite hobby of mine." She threw another Skittle.

"I can't believe you haven't tried to sneak out yet." Nico said, totally honest.

"Oh I did. That's why Rachel and Argus are watching me. I think they have people guarding all the exits." She rolled her eyes. "Will you shadow travel me out?" She smiled and fluttered her eyelids.

"Yeah right." Nico noticed some Mythomagic cards spread on the table. "You play?"

"What, Mythomagic? Yeah I play that. I was attempting to play alone, but that didn't really work." She waved a hand at the cards.

"Wanna play?" He pulled out his deck.

"Sure! I mean, better than doing nothing, I guess." She tried to look casual, but he could see excitement sparking in her eyes. Kole sat up, holding her side.

"You okay?" Nico asked.

"Psh like you care, Death Boy. I'm perfectly fine." She didn't look at him.

-An hour later-

"Ha! My Fates have taken out your monster armies with a single snip!" Kole shouted, slamming down a card.

"But can you Fates stand up to Zeus?" Nico put a card on top of hers.

"Can Zeus stand up to Hyperion?!" Kole triumphantly covered Nico's card.

"Um, can Hyperion defeat Porphyrion?" Nico played his last card.

"But Tartarus swallows all!" Kole played her own last card. "And the crowd goes wild! Wooooo! Woooo!" Kole grinned hugely. "In yo face, Death Boy!"

Nico couldn't help but smile at her display. "I'll give you this one, Pranky Pants."

"Pranky Pants? Really? That's the best you can do?" Kole raised an eyebrow.

"Better than Death Boy." Nico shrugged. The dinner horn rang through the valley.

"Ooh food yay." Kole tried to stand up. She succeeded, but she had to lean on the couch.

"You cannot walk all the way to the pavilion." Nico said, watching her.

"Yeah huh. I can walk wherever I want." Kole said stubbornly.

"Chiron said you have to stay in bed for another day."Nico crossed his arms. "Which means you can't go to dinner. You have to get back on that couch and stay there."

"You can't make me!" Kole said, exasperated. She tried to walk towards the door, but it didn't work too well. Nico managed to catch her, though. He pulled her up to her feet, awkwardly avoiding her eyes. Once she was steadied, he stepped back. "Um, thanks?"

"No problem."Nico shoved his hands in his pockets and studied the floor. He watched Kole walk away, each step careful. She hugged her ribs, trying to keep the wound in her side from painfully shifting. He followed after her, ready to catch her again, all the way to the pavilion.


	4. Chapter 4

Kole's POV

After dinner, Chiron banged his hoof, and all the platters and dishes disappeared, replaced by armor and weapons. "You all know the rules! No killing or maiming, I'm the medic. The teams are currently led by Hermes and Athena! Magic items are allowed." Chiron shouted. The pavilion erupted with cheers as everyone rushed to get their armor on. Kole grinned and joined her brethren, arming herself with deadly weapons.

She managed to mask her pain as they all got in position in the woods, but once she was alone in the clearing guarding the flag, she groaned an kicked a rock. She heard the noise of battle in the distance as she set up a perimeter of flash bangs, Slip Slime, and banana nets.

Of course, the first person to go for her flag was Nico. Kole turned invisible as soon as she spotted him. He tripped over a flash bang, came up coughing, then face planted in a puddle of Slip Slime.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that-" Nico started.

"I was here?" Kole appeared right behind him, finishing his sentence and scaring the Hades out of him.

"OMYGODSWHEREDIDYOUCOMEFROM?!" Nico jumped a foot in the air. Kole almost fell over laughing. A few other kids came through her defense line, but they all got caught in her banana nets.

"You ain't getting that flag, Death Boy." Kole put her hands on her hips.

"Wanna bet?" Nico drew his black sword. Kole whipped out her keychain and put it in sword mode. He gave an experimental lunge. She parried and whapped him in the side with the flat of her blade, trying to hide her wince. Kole went on the offensive, and Nico could barely avoid getting sliced to pieces. Eventually he got used to her style, and they sparred as equals.

The game ended, but still Nico and Kole fought. Sweat broke out on their foreheads as the sound of clashing blades rang through the clearing. The color left Kole's face and she started trembling with effort. Pain shot through her body as she twisted to avoid Nico's other campers gathered around, watching silently. Kole saw money change hands out of the corner of her eye. Bets on who would win, no doubt.

"Kole you should not be out of bed, let alone sparring!" Chiron scolded.

"Little busy!" she responded, blocking Nico's blade and pushing him back. She feigned to the right, then smacked his leg with the tip of her sword. She parried his strike, but the next blow landed right over her snake bite. She gasped and dropped her sword, clutching her side. "Dang it!" she stumbled forward, trying to regain her balance. The campers were silent. Nico sheathed his sword and caught her before she face planted. "Why does this keep happening? It's embarrassing!" Kole complained.

"Because you're an idiot, that's why. You just can't listen to Chiron, can you." Nico shook his head.

"It's kind of inconvenient. It's no fun to lay on a couch all day." Kole sighed.

"Ya but it's also no fun to have to catch you every five seconds." Nico rolled his eyes.

"And it's also no fun to have to be so close to you. Uhg. Why can't someone else catch me?" Kole asked. A pained look appeared in Nico eyes for a moment, but it disappeared so fast she must've imagined it. Nico didn't even have a chance to say anything before she blacked out. Again.

Nico's POV

The whole next day, Kole was unconscious. Nico kept finding himself thinking of her, then wondering why. Her words the night before ran through his head all day. 'And it's also no fun to have to be so close to you. Why can't someone else catch me?' It bothered him that her comment had stung so much, because he was determined not to like her. He shouldn't care her, after all her pranks.

Nico pretty much just wandered around all day, doing whatever monster fighting classes were happening, anything to take his mind off Kole. He refused to think about her.

"Hey Death Breath! You know where our sister is? Drew thinks you like her."

Connor and Travis.

Nico took a deep breath and turned around slowly. "No, I don't know where she is. And no, I do not like her."

"Suuuure. Death Breath likes Kole!" Travis shouted. Nico thrust up his hand, and the earth rumbled as bones buried deep underground shook.

"You will not say that to anyone! No one at all." Nico said, glaring at them intensely, his dark eyes flashing threateningly.

"Okay, okay! We promise!" they shuddered, remembering what Nico did last time they made him mad.

After dinner that night, Nico couldn't stand it anymore. He went to the Big House after he ate and knocked on the door.

He stood on the porch for a minute before the door was opened by Chiron.

"How's K-" Nico started. His voice faded when he saw Chiron's expression.

"You should come in." Chiron said, his face blank. Nico's heart clenched in anxiety. Chiron opened the door wider so Nico could come in. "She hasn't woken up since last night. She's running a high fever, and I don't want to risk giving her any more nectar or ambrosia. I gave her another dose of the antidote for the snake poison, but it hasn't made much difference. I don't know what else I can do for her."

Nico walked into the room she was in. No smile played across her face, and her normally rosy cheeks were pale. He was worried, then mad at himself for being so worried. Then he just gave up. He couldn't hide his feelings, he'd learned that the hard way, so he might as well embrace them. He liked Kole. He was worried about her.

Chiron left Nico sitting by the couch Kole was lying on. After he was gone, Nico started muttering to Kole, even though he knew she was unconscious.

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I kinda like you." He couldn't stop the blush that spread across his cheeks. "Or at least, I don't want you to die. I haven't decided yet."

He sat there almost the whole night, and after midnight, he fell asleep on the floor next to her couch.

The next morning, Nico woke up with his back against Kole's couch. For once, he didn't have any bad dreams. He sat up and glanced over at Kole, hoping she'd be awake, but she was still unconscious, pale and shaking. Nico sighed and leaned against the couch.

Chiron walked in a few minutes after Nico woke up, medicine pouch in tow.

"Were you here all night?" Chiron said, the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at his lips. Nico blushed and just left the room.

Kole's POV

Kole could normally handle pain. She'd broken her leg, her ribs, even been stabbed in the gut. But poison? That was a whole new level of ow. She'd never actually gone unconscious before, but after her spar with Nico, all her energy left and a wave exhaustion and pain had totally knocked her out.

Her mind wondered through dreams, each one worst than the last. She relived practically her whole past, and all she wanted was to wake up. Then the dreams started getting dimmer and dimmer, until they disappeared. And all she could feel was the pain.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter's kinda short, but oh well**

Nico's POV

Nico was actually surprised by how fast he'd gotten used to Kole being around. Even though she'd only been for three days, and she'd been unconscious most of that time, Nico felt like she had been at Camp Half Blood all along.

He figured that he liked her because he sensed the pain inside her, much like his own. He saw through her jokes and pranks, or rather, saw them for what they were: a wall to hide behind. Nico could understand that, hiding behind a wall. And because he understood, he wanted to help her. He doubted that she would let him past her wall; that's why he didn't want to like her. He wanted to be the healer, the friend, giving her what he didn't have while he went through that.

-skip to the end-

That night, Nico lay in bed in the Hades cabin, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep, and he was determined to think about anything but Kole. Of course, his subconscious was thinking of her, so of course he fell right into her dreams when sleep took him. He still wasn't quite sure when and how he'd gotten the power to go into other people's dreams, but it was there.

Nico saw a young Kole, maybe seven years old, run by the alley where he stood. Two Cyclopes were chasing her, right on her tail. Nico followed at a distance, not wanting Kole to know he was in her dream, because she'd see him and be able to tell he wasn't actually part of the dream. He watched the young girl get cornered, then talk the smaller Cyclops into challenging the larger one who was obviously the leader. This resulted in the small one being killed by the larger one while Kole snuck away. She hid in a dumpster, and the Cyclops eventually wandered off.

Then the dream changed. Kole was sitting curled up in a closet while shouts echoed through the walls. Bangs rattled the door. Nico accidentally knocked a coat off of its hanger, and Kole spun around. She saw Nico and her eyes widened. "What the- why are you here?" she asked, confused.

"I have the power to go into other people's dreams. I'm, well my consciousness, is actually here." Nico explained.

Kole looked away. "Is this- Is this from your past?" Nico asked hesitantly. "You don't have to answer that."

Kole buried her face in her folded arms. "Yeah. When I was little, my mom would go out and get drunk, then come back and become delirious and break everything. Sometimes she'd even hit me. Then when she was sober again, she'd blame it on me. I ran away when I was six, not being able to handle it anymore. Then I just kinda roamed the streets until I was eleven, when I stumbled across the Wolf House and Lupa took me to Camp Jupiter. Even there, I never fit in. I got my first stripe, became a full member of the legion, when I was twelve, because I saved this guy's life. That didn't help. So I tried befriending the new people when they came, but every time anyone started to actually be my friend, someone else would come along and my 'friend' would ditch me. Then after the giant war, at Camp Half Blood, I heard about the Stolls and all their pranks. So I decided to go to New York for a fresh start. The only reason I pranked you was to try to earn the Stolls as my friends." Kole sniffed, and Nico could tell she was holding back tears. "Sorry about that, by the way. So now I'm sixteen, and I still have no friends."

"Um, I could like, be your friend, uh, if you want." Nico said awkwardly. He sat down next to her. Kole looked up and grinned at him.

"Okay. I like that idea." She bumped him with her shoulder.

"Oh yeah, and sorry about the sword fight. I feel really bad about whacking you. I totally forgot about the snake and stuff." Nico apologized.

"That was my own fault, don't worry about it. Although I am getting really bored of being about to die." Kole admitted. Her image shimmered. "I think I'm waking up. Cause it hurts really bad all the sudden." Then she disappeared. Her dream world faded, and Nico woke up.

Kole's POV

Kole woke up from her bizarre dream with a groan of pain. Her whole body shook uncontrollably, and she was freezing cold all of the sudden. She reached out and grabbed the glass of nectar with trembling fingers, and gulped the whole thing down. After a few minutes, the shaking stopped, and she sat up. She glanced outside, where the moon was still high in the sky. She pulled the blankets tight around her shoulders and took a deep breath. Chiron had said the antidote would take a while to work, but she hoped it would start soon. Kole hated being stuck down, not being able to do anything fun.

She thought about her dream, and how she'd told Nico about her past. She didn't know if the dream was real, if he actually was there, but she wondered why she told him anyway.

She sat on her couch and waited for morning to come.


	6. Chapter 6

Kole's POV

The next day, Kole felt a million times better. She could walk with no problem, although she did have occasional flashes of pain. She showed up at breakfast and when she joined the Hermes cabin, they cheered excitedly. When Chiron gave the morning announcements, he told everyone to keep an eye on Kole and make sure that she didn't get herself into a coma again, which caused laughter.

She saw Nico, and she could tell from the way he looked at her that the dream had been real, and she kind of avoided him.

She did archery with Chiron, which turned out to be a terrible idea, tossed a few sparkle bombs into the Ares cabin with the Stolls, and stuck a mustache on Connor's back, which of course Travis didn't say anything about. After dinner, she skipped campfire and found a tall tree on the edge of the woods.

The climb took a few minutes and she might've ripped one of her stitches, but she got to the top and settled into the crook of a branch to watch the sunset.

"I thought Chiron said that you shouldn't get yourself in a coma again."

Kole jumped and almost came out of the tree the hard way.

"Holy Hera! You almost gave me a heart attack Nico!" She looked down and glared at the black dot thirty feet below her.

"How come you've been avoiding me all day?" Nico called up.

"What? I haven't been avoiding you, what are you talking about?" Kole laughed nervously.

"You're a terrible liar. I'm coming up there." Nico ran into the shadow of a tree and popped up on a branch next to Kole. "You've totally been avoiding me."

"No other human in the world knows about my past." Kole said, looking away from him.

"Oh, that. Well, secrets like that are hard to keep in. Trust me, I've tried." Nico watched the sun disappear behind the ocean.

"I just don't want anyone to treat me differently because they feel bad or anything. I don't want my past to define me. Of course, it's never really mattered before because no one cares about me." Kole shrugged.

"Yeah, well maybe you can change that." Nico turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Kole kept staring into the distance.

"I think that maybe you don't give people the chance to care about you. You just assume that they don't care about you and put up your wall, you shut them out. You can't shut people out forever." Nico said forcefully.

"The only reason I've ever shut people out is to protect myself! So many times I let someone past my 'wall' and they've only hurt me! My heart's been broken too many times, and I won't let it happen again." She turned around and started climbing back down.

Kole's boot slipped off the branch she stepped down to, but Nico was there in a second. He placed a steadying hand on her waist as she regained her balance. Kole shivered at his touch.

"Maybe there's someone out there who won't break your heart. Did you ever think of that?" Nico asked quietly.

A second later Kole was safely on the ground and Nico was gone.

Nico's POV

Nico understood why Kole was acting the way she was, but that didn't mean he wasn't frustrated by it. He didn't want to scare her into completely shutting him out, but her stubbornness was getting annoying. He let her avoid him, because he knew she had to come to him.

Nico surfed around all day, doing his usual training, but it somehow wasn't the same. It was like living your whole life in a dark cave, then coming out and experiencing the sunlight, but then being forced back into the dark cave. He knew there was something better out there, now, but he couldn't get to it. He wasn't even sure what it was.

That afternoon, Nico went down to the beach. The sound of the waves always calmed him down, and he needed a break from other people. Apparently, though, someone else had had the same idea.

Kole stood in the waves, the water crashing onto her legs. The sea breeze whipped her short hair around, and a content smile was on her face. Nico turned around and was about to walk away.

"Nico, wait." Kole turned to look at him. "Come here."

Nico stepped into the waves next to her.

"I was thinking about what you said last night. And I think you're right. By shutting people out, I might be protecting myself, but I'm also blocking out any chance to make a friend." Kole turned back to watch the waves in the distance.

"So would you be interested in letting me have a chance?" Nico asked carefully.

"If you really want to. Just, you know, be forewarned." Kole smiled wryly.

"Uh, should I be scared?" Nico looked at her warily.

"Depends if you like the taste of salt." Kole leaned down and splashed Nico right in the face.

"Hey!" Nico leaned down to splash back, but Kole took off down the beach, kicking up water at him. Nico gave chase, laughing like a maniac.

And so began the strangest friendship Camp Half Blood had ever seen.

Kole's POV

Kole settled into a comfortable routine at camp. She trained with sword and bow, and even picked up a Celestial bronze gun from the weapons shed. She got so good, she could beat almost anyone, except for Clarisse. She beat the record on the climbing wall, and won almost every capture the flag game. She became senior counselor in the Hermes cabin, after she decided that she wanted to stay at camp. She started making a few friends. And always, every afternoon, she and Nico would end up at the beach, splashing each other. She was happy.

So of course it had to change.


	7. Chapter 7

Kole's POV

Chiron called everyone to the amphitheater around ten one morning. This never happened, so all of the campers were automatically apprehensive.

"It has come to our attention that there is a half blood in North Dakota somewhere, in a high school, and we need to send an extraction team of heroes as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we have almost no resources available at the moment." Chiron paused. "Because of this, I was wondering if Nico would be willing to make the trip, with a companion. What do you think of that, Mr. di Angelo?" Chiron fixed Nico with a questioning look.

"Uh, sure, I can do that." Nico shrugged.

"Good. Now today is October 1, and the school this half blood attends is having a dance on October 3, which gives you a three days to get to the school, locate the demigod, and explain to him what is going on. At the dance, you can nab the kid and get out of there." Chiron explained. "Now just pick your companion and you can be on your way this afternoon. Personally, I would suggest Miss Evans, as you two work quite well together, and she is very capable with most weapons."'

"Miss Evans? You mean like Kloe Evans from that movie?" A kid from the Apollo cabin called out. "And that other movie?" another kid asked.

Nico spotted Kole, across the amphitheater, blush and hide her face. "Yeah, sure. Kole, you wanna go to the dance with me?" Nico asked, grinning.

Kole looked up. "If you really need me too…" She laughed. "I'll bring my arsenal and a dress. That is, if I had one."

"Ooh! You can borrow one of mine!" A girl from Aphrodite cried, shooting to her feet. "Come with me, you can pick one out!"

"And Nico, you're gonna need a suit! If I have to wear a dress, you have to wear a suit." Kole called over her shoulder. Nico groaned as he got pushed away by a horde of Aphrodite boys.

Three hours later, they were standing on Half Blood Hill, backpacks slung over shoulders. Chiron came toward them with bags of ambrosia. "Take these, just in case. There's a possibility you'll run into monsters."

"That's the understatement of the year. Of course we'll run into monsters. Kole made sure she had her gun, bow, extra arrows, and sword. "That's the only reason I agreed to come."

"Anyway, good luck, and be careful." Chiron said.

"May the gods be ever in your favor." Kole said, grinning at her joke. Chiron didn't get it, but Nico smiled and gave her a fist bump.

"Hang on to me and brace yourself." Nico commanded, holding out his arm. Kole grabbed his arm, then saluted Chiron as they stepped into the shadow of Thalia's tree.

Shadow traveling was weird. Kole felt like she was being squished, tickled, and hosed down all at once. It was over fast, and they landed in a different forest after that. She let go of Nico's arm and looked around. It was a forest a lot like the one at camp; rocks everywhere, trees so tall you had to look straight up to see the top.

"Do you know where we are?" Kole glanced at Nico. He looked a little nauseous and dizzy. "You okay?"

"Wisconsin. Ever since-war-shadow travel-really hard-" Nico stumbled forward and almost collapsed, but Kole grabbed him.

"My turn to catch you now?" Kole grunted. Nico nodded, totally limp in her arms.

Kole dragged him over to a tree. "Gods, you're heavy." She leaned him against the trunk. "Why didn't you say something about that? That's why Chiron picked you."

"I can still do it, I just have to rest." Nico told her. Then he curled up and fell asleep.

Nico's POV

Nico understood why Kole was embarrassed about having to get caught now. Although, it had to be worse for him, because he was supposed to be a tough guy.

His dreams were weird. Bianca's spirit, telling him to move on. His friends, telling him that he was accepted now. And strange reliving of the past few days.

When he finally woke up, it was almost dark. Kole was up in a tree across the clearing, maybe forty feet in the air, looking around. She was leaning away from the tree, hanging over open air, hanging on with one hand. The cold wind whipped through her hair, tangling it, and the setting sun shone behind her. Nico just sat there, watching her for a moment. Kole glanced down and saw him, and started clambering down. Nico winced when a branch broke under her foot, but she caught herself easily and was down in a few minutes.

"The zombie lives!" Kole teased, stopping a few feet away from him. "So what's the plan?" she put a hand on her hip.

"Well we have a two days to get there, so I say we just walk until it's too dark to see, then make camp." Nico shrugged, pulling himself to his feet.

"Sounds like a plan." Kole shoved something into her pocket. "So do we like, have any idea whatsoever where we're going?"

"West?" Nico said.

"Oh that's just great."

They only ended up walking for twenty minutes before it was too dark. They could tell it was too dark because Kole tripped over a rock, ran into a tree, and tripped into Nico.

"How can you still see where you're going?!" she asked, hopping on one foot.

"Guess it's a Hades thing." Nico didn't really know. Kole slung off her backpack and pulled out a bedroll. She rolled it out right up next to a huge boulder, then started gathering armloads of wood. Nico just sat there awkwardly. Kole had obviously done this before, and he didn't really know what to do.

Kole started a fire and pulled out a huge bag of barbecue chips. She gestured for Nico to come closer to the fire and sit next to her. He grudgingly obliged. Kole tilted the bag of chips toward him, and he grabbed a handful.

"McDonalds is way better." Nico said through a mouthful.

"Eew!" Kole wrinkled her nose.

"Excuse me?! McDonalds is the best! I disown you!" Nico exclaimed.

"Disown me from what? That doesn't even make sense!"

"Neither does your face!"

"Wow. I'm not talking to you anymore." Kole stuck her nose in the air. "And you don't get any more of my chips." She moved the bag to her other side.

"Fine."

"Fine."

Five minutes later, Kole was crushing chips into Nico's hair while he tickled her. The whole time, he was wondering, _why am I doing this? I don't like people! _But it was drowned out by how much fun he was having.

Nico had to convince Kole to sleep and let him take first watch, but after she let out a huge yawn, she finally gave in.

She'd been asleep for barely an hour when she started whimpering in her sleep. Nico automatically moved to wake her up, because he knew firsthand what nightmares did to a person.

"Hey, hey wake up." He shook her shoulders gently. Kole's eyes flew open and she grabbed Nico's arms for support. "It's okay, it was just a dream, you're fine."

"Sorry." Kole let go of him, taking a deep breath.

"Try to go back to sleep, I can wake you up if it gets bad." Nico said. She nodded and curled up into a tiny ball. Nico sat beside her, watching over her for the rest of the night.


	8. Chapter 8

Kole's POV

Kole was a little embarrassed about the whole nightmare thing the night before, but she figured Nico understood. The next morning, they had candy bars for breakfast, courtesy of Kole, of course, then shadow traveled the rest of the way to Bottineau, North Dakota.

"Bottineau? Really? Who names a town Bottineau?" Kole raised an eyebrow at the sign, which read: Welcome to Bottineau! We have pie!

"Pie is good though." She added. Kole was watching Nico out of the corner of her eye, making sure he was okay. He seemed to be fine, but she stayed close to him just in case. "So do you have a plan?"

"Uh, find a place to conk out for a few hours, then find the school, then surf around until tomorrow night. Chiron said there should be a satyr there who knows where the kid is." Nico swayed a bit, and Kole steadied him.

"You think we could find a cave or something?" Kole asked, gesturing to the expanse of forest to their left.

"Yeah, good idea." Nico followed Kole down a narrow path into the trees.

After almost an hour of trudging through the misty, damp words, Kole spotted a cabin.

"You think there's anyone in there?" she asked, pointing it out to Nico. "Let's check it out." Nico was looking more and more exhausted the longer they walked, and Kole was getting a little desperate.

By the time they reached the front steps, Kole had an arm around Nico's waist, half supporting, half dragging him. The door was unlocked, and the cabin was empty.

"Apparently there's zero crime in Bottineau." Kole settled Nico onto the couch, tossing a blanket over him before he passed out.

She watched random shows on the cabin's TV while Nico slept, even going so far as to raid the pantry for snacks.

Every once in a while, Kole would glance over at Nico. She had made it her personal goal when she'd met him to get him to smile, and so far she'd been pretty successful. His smile was contagious.

Two hours after Nico fell asleep, someone opened the front door. Kole pulled out her sword keychain, ready to move, but two regular mortals walked in. A couple, maybe in their mid twenties, walked into the room.

The woman gasped when she saw them, and the man moved towards a closet, probably where he had a gun. Kole's brain went into hyper drive.

"I'm so sorry!" she started fake crying. "Me and my boyfriend, we were hiking and then he- he just passed out, and I didn't know what to do and-" she hid her face, trying to look like a distraught teenager.

"Oh don't cry sweetie! It's fine, you can stay until he gets better, calm down." The woman sat down beside Kole and put an arm around her. Kole flinched at her touch, but tried to hide it. "I'll get you some tea right away."

"No, it's okay, you've done enough already." Kole hated tea.

"No, I insist darling." The woman replied, rushing into the kitchen. The man hovered in the hallway awkwardly, then turned around and followed the woman.

"Nico, please wake up!" Kole hissed. He didn't stir. The woman came back in bearing a steaming mug. "Oh thank you Miss…"

"You can call me Claire." She smiled. "So how did you meet your boyfriend?"

Kole stiffened. "Uh, well, I guess, you could say, um, it was fate." She smiled weakly.

"Oh! Was it like a fairy tale?" Claire beamed.

"What? Oh yeah!" Kole said. Sure. A Grimm fairy tale.

"Maybe true love's kiss will wake him up!" Claire smiled even wider.

"Oh that's just in the stories." Kole fought back terror.

"Oh come on, you should try it! After all, he is your boyfriend." Claire's smile was looking a little scary now. "Go on!"

Kole scooted over and sat on the floor by Nico's couch. There was no way in Hades that she was going to kiss Nico. But Claire insisted.

So she turned around and leaned in. Then she pinched him really hard. He didn't wake up. Kole was seriously starting to panic now.

"Wake up you idiot!" she hissed under her breath.

"What are you waiting for?" Claire. Again. Kole frantically tried to think of anything to get out of this.

"Nico pleeeeeease wake up!" she poked his face. He still didn't move.

"Kiss him!"

Kole groaned. Then in one swift movement, she brushed her lips against his, then turned around and tried to clear her face of the blush she knew was there. Nico's eyes shot open.

"I told you it would work!" Claire exclaimed.

"What the-" Nico sat up and looked at Kole questioningly.

"We'd better go now." Kole said hurriedly, standing up and dragging Nico with her.

Kole didn't stop running until they were completely out of sight of the cabin.

"What- in- Hades- happened- there?" Nico panted.

"Um, nothing. Nothing happened." Kole didn't look at him.

"It sounded like that lady was talking about true love's kiss or something." Nico looked confused.

"She's crazy. That's why I was so eager to leave." Kole shrugged.

"Okay then. So where are we gonna sleep tonight, then, since we can't sleep in the whack job's cabin?" Nico asked.

"I don't know." Kole shrugged.

"Well we'd better figure something out. It's probably almost three. Do we have any food left? Cause I'm starving." Nico turned to face her.

"Let's get back to the town and find some corner or something, then we'll set up camp and eat." Kole said, walking back towards the main road. Nico followed grudgingly.

Nico's POV

Nico had had dream that Kole kissed him. Which kind of freaked him out, because he must be going insane if his brain thought that would ever happen. He followed her through the woods, trying to figure out what the Hades had happened back there.

They found a nice, mostly clean alley pretty easily, and Kole set up camp while Nico ate a grilled sandwich from a tiny restaurant they'd found.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks for the awesome reviews guys, it means so much to me! **

**Nico's about to get some competition...**

Nico's POV

It was an hour before the dance was supposed to start. Kole and Nico had easily gleaned the time and location of the event. They'd found a cheap restaurant with public bathrooms to use to change.

When Kole came out, Nico literally had to pinch himself to keep himself from staring. Her dress was black, strapless and just reaching her knees. The top was encrusted with silver beads. It fit her perfectly, even though she looked uncomfortable in it. Apparently the Aphrodite kids had also taught her how to do makeup, because she had a few subtle touches that made her eyes look bigger and brighter. She was beautiful. You couldn't not look at her.

"How does it look?" Kole asked, spinning around.

"Good enough, I guess." Nico shrugged. Kole stuck her tongue out at him.

"Well I think you look awesome. Except your jacket is totally crooked." She straightened his collar.

"Fine, I admit. You look amazing. Those Aphrodites really know how to dress someone up." Nico confessed.

Kole grinned. "Why thank you! Now anyway, we have ten minutes before it starts."

When they reached the school, the doors were open. They mingled in with the other teenagers there, trying to blend in. As soon as they got to the gymnasium, a boy, obviously a satyr, approached them and pointed out the kid.

He looked like a basketball player: close cropped blonde hair, long and lean build. He was surrounded by a few other guys.

"Here's the plan. You and me dance over to that side of the room once music starts up, then I'll talk to him, get him to dance with me, tell him what's up, then we leave. And yes, I have my sword." Kole said.

"Okay. Got it." Nico saluted. Kole rolled her eyes. After the music started, a slow song, Nico awkwardly looped an arm around her waist and grabbed her hand. Nico's mind wasn't on the dance though. He was thinking of another dance, almost six years ago, when he'd had his sister. The night he'd met Percy. But mostly, he thought about Bianca.

"You okay?" Kole asked.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." Nico smiled half heartedly. He took a deep breath. "Six years ago, I was found at a dance and taken away by some demigods. Back when I had my sister." He said tightly.

"Oh. I bet you miss her."

"So much."

"I'll be your sister, if you want." Kole gave him a hopeful smile. Nico couldn't help but smile back.

_I don't want you to be my sister. I want you to be something else!_ "Okay. I'd like that." Nico said.

When they reached the dude, Kole stopped. She shoved Nico off to get punch or something while she did the hard part. Nico stood by a table, sipping sparkling cider.

The way that the guy looked at Kole when she approached him made Nico want to punch him repeatedly in the nose then lock him outside forever. Even from where he was, Nico could tell the guy was hitting on her. She managed to draw him away from his little crowd of jocks. Unfortunately for her, the next song was slow and smooth. The guy snaked and arm around her waist and pulled her forward. Kole 'accidentally' stepped on his foot with her six inch heels. Nico could tell that Kole was trying to explain the situation to him, but he wasn't even paying attention. Nico was about to go over there and knock the guy out when the window exploded inward. Kole had her sword in her hand before Nico could blink. Some kind of wind spirit busted in and swirled around in the middle of the dance floor until it solidified into a seven foot man holding a massive golden blade. Kole flew into action, her short black blade clashing with the enemy's.

"Nico! Get ready to shadow travel us out! Get the dude!" Kole yelled as she ducked under a strike and practically cleaved the giant man's arm off. Nico tackled the new demigod, who was just gaping as Kole beat the crap out of the giant.

"What the heck are you doing, man? What is going on?!" the kid's eyes were huge.

"Gods of Olympus, did you even listen to Kole at all?" Nico groaned. "The Greek gods and mythology are real, you are a child of one of those Greek gods and a human. We are gonna take you to a camp where you can train to fight monsters."

"I don't understand!" The guy protested.

"Sucks for you!" Nico shouted. Kole joined them a minute later, blood dripping from a cut on her arm and her dress in shreds. She grabbed Nico's hand and he shadow traveled back into the woods.


	10. Chapter 10

**Please review, my peeps. I'm open to ideas for drastic plot changes or little funny moments too, if anyone has any ideas. **

**What does anybody think about a chapter from Daniel's POV?**

Kole's POV

If Kole had to describe the dance in one word, it would be: awkward. The new guy, Daniel, had been flirting with her the whole time, and even when she'd squirmed, he'd been holding her waist the whole time. She'd had to use every ounce of self control in her to not slap him. Kole was sure that he didn't even hear anything that she'd said about the situation, then the stupid giant man showed up. Honestly, taking care of that guy was way easier than dealing with Daniel.

As soon as they landed, Kole looped an arm around Nico's waist and helped him over to lean against a tree. Then she checked perimeter and started setting up camp. It was almost ten at night, and pitch black. Daniel was following her everywhere.

"Oh my gods, man, give her some space!" Nico suddenly burst out.

"Oh thank the gods you're awake." Kole said, relieved. She helped him to his feet so he could move over to his sleeping bag, which she'd set up for him. As soon as she left to go get some more wood for the fire, they started arguing. When she got back, Kole stoked the fire. "Nico, you up for taking first watch?" she asked. He smirked at Daniel for some reason.

"Of course, Kole." Nico pulled out his sword. Kole curled up in her sleeping bag, facing away from the boys. They kept arguing, and not very quietly.

"SHUT UP! What in Hades is your problem, you two?!" Kole exclaimed after an hour. They both shut up, and Kole slept until three in the morning, when she took over watch.

The next morning, the boys picked up right where they'd left off. Kole gave up on telling them to shut it, because it only lasted a half a second. She just rolled her eyes and led the way.

"Nico, can you shadow travel yet?" Kole asked, at six on the second day.

"Yeah, sure." Kole waited for them to catch up to her, then took Nico's hand. Daniel gave Nico the death glare, and grabbed his arm.

They popped up somewhere in Connecticut. Nico almost passed out on his feet, but Kole was ready. She set up camp quickly, scouting out the territory and building the fire. She left the boys to their fighting and climbed a tree, trying to figure out how far from camp they were.

Nico's POV

"You have no idea what the real world is like!" Nico shouted.

"Oh yeah? Says the guy who grew up in some magic camp!"

"I did not grow up there! And when was the last time you were fighting for your life against a creature four times your size?!"

"You don't know what the real world is, loser!"

"Wow, real mature. You sure you're actually a demigod?"

"What's so cool about being a stupid demigod anyway?"

Nico thrust out his hand, and a fox skeleton erupted from the ground and trotted away. He stepped into a shadow and came out behind Daniel. He pressed his palm to the ground and a tiny earthquake shook the forest.

"Hey!" Kole shouted from her tree twenty feet above them. "Watch it brother!"

"Oh sorry, Kole. Just illustrating my power for Daniel!" Nico smirked.

"Yeah well quit showing off. We've got a flock of evil harpies heading our way." Kole said, scrambling down the tree. Daniel lifted her off the lowest branch and spun her around, setting her on her feet. She glared at him before spinning around and retrieving her quiver and bow.

Kole brought down the first harpy before Nico could even see it, but pretty soon, they were too close for her to get a good shot. She drew her sword and started hacking through the screaming harpies. Nico fought at her side, but mostly they were keeping the things from eating new guy. Which Nico didn't have a problem with, but Chiron kind of expected them to come back with the kid alive.

"Duck!" Kole yelled at him. Nico listened without hesitation, and her blade swept over his head, taking out a harpy. He felt a wave of affection for her, but he pushed it down.

The fight was over within fifteen minutes.

"Oh my gosh, you are such a good fighter! You're like a warrior princess!" Daniel gushed.

"Yeah whatever." Kole rolled her eyes. "We should probably go. We're on the monster radar now, if we weren't before. I'm guessing you probably can't shadow travel yet, and it'll be dark in an hour, so we should at least move."

Kole grabbed her pack and weapons. The boys followed her. "Looks like Death Boy's special powers aren't very useful now, are they." Daniel smirked.

"You know what, I don't know what in Hades your guys' problem is, but you seriously need to stop bashing each other and just get along. I am not even kidding right now, grow up!" Kole yelled, turning around to glare at both of them. Nico automatically felt bad.

"Sorry Kole. You're right, we're being really immature." He apologized.

"You ain't getting an apology outta me. Even miss bossy pants can't order this guy around." Daniel crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

"Wow. I can't even do this with you right now." Kole turned around and stomped off.

"Nice move, idiot." Nico growled, following Kole. Daniel just laughed and joined the procession.

When darkness fell, Kole set up camp with her usual speed, then climbed up the nearest tree. Nico followed her up while new guy tried to figure out how to start a fire.

"You okay?" Nico asked.

"I don't really want to talk right now." Kole didn't look at him.

"Fine. Then I won't say anything." Nico replied. They sat there, watching the stars come out for a while.

"Hey people, there's some weird noises coming out of this bush here! It sounds like a giant dog." Daniel called up.

"Of course." Kole complained, swiftly climbing down the tree. Nico couldn't help but admire the way she swung nimbly from branch to branch, how gracefully she landed when she jumped the last eight feet to the ground. He followed after her, but by the time he'd made it to the bottom, the hellhound was already out of hiding and on the offensive. Kole slashed it across the snout, dodging a giant paw and slicing the hound's belly.

A huge paw caught her shoulder, crushing her to the ground. The dog roared, its face not even a foot from Kole. She lie there, perfectly still, staring at the teeth of the creature. Nico was about to lunge to the rescue, when Kole thrust her sword all the way through the hellhound's head and it crumbled to dust.

Kole stood up, panting. Her shoulder was bleeding, but other than that she was fine. Kole's sword turned back into a keychain and she shoved it into her pocket.

"You saved my life!" Daniel exclaimed, gaping. Kole ignored him and lit the fire, which apparently he'd given up on.

"Are you okay?" Nico asked, gesturing to her shoulder.

"I'm fine. I'll take first watch, you guys get some sleep. We should be able to get to camp tomorrow, if you can shadow travel." Kole didn't meet his eyes. She flexed her shoulders, wincing a bit.

"You should rest, I can watch." Nico said, trying to stop her from climbing back into the tree for watch.

"I wouldn't be able to sleep." Kole pushed past him. Nico knew it was useless to protest after she'd made up her mind, so he retreated to his sleeping bag. He shifted it so it was facing her, though, so he could keep an eye on the girl.

**Peace out**


	11. Chapter 11

**My friend (a daughter of Apollo) came up with a great way to explain this story.**

**Nico liked a boy,**

**But then true love**

**Changed his life**

**Nico's dead heart BEATS**

**So there. Also, I can take a page from Anna's book and whack people with guitars, screaming "ITS TRUE LOVE!"**

Kole's POV

Kole was utterly confused by the boys' behavior. Nico didn't normally get into petty arguments, but for some reason, he'd hated Daniel as soon he saw him. Daniel hated him right back.

Daniel's perfect hair and well muscled body didn't make Kole like him at all. She didn't hate him. She just really didn't like him.

Kole stayed on watch the whole night, refusing to wake Nico for his watch. When the sun peeked over the horizon, Nico woke up. Kole was still sitting where she'd been the night before, bow in hand. Nico crossed the camp to stand right underneath her tree.

"How come you didn't wake me last night?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets and staring up at her.

"I didn't want to sleep. I'd rather have something to do. Besides, you needed to get your strength up." Kole shrugged, then winced.

"Come here, let me look at your shoulder." Nico waved her down.

"I'm good, Nico." Kole protested.

"Come here right now, or so help me I will drag you out of that tree with my bare hands." He glared at her.

"Fiiiine." She climbed down and stood in front of him. He sat her on a rock and she pulled off her sweatshirt so she was wearing only an undershirt. A gash ran from her collar bone to over her shoulder blade, but it wasn't super deep. Nico retrieved the bag of ambrosia from his back and gave it to her while he poured some nectar over the cut. It closed half way, so it was just a thin red line stretching over her shoulder.

Kole shivered in the cold and grabbed her sweatshirt. "Thanks." She said, pulling it over her head.

"No problem." Nico crossed the clearing and kicked Daniel, who was still in his sleeping bag. Kole rolled her eyes and put out the fire.

Daniel groaned and punched Nico's leg in protest, which got him another kick. Eventually he got up.

"You guys are pathetic." Kole scolded. The boys packed up their stuff and ate the super healthy breakfast Kole threw at them: Cheetos.

"You are such a great cook, Kole." Nico said sarcastically, licking orange off his fingers.

"Why thank you!" Kole grinned. Daniel scowled.

After they were all done, Kole checked to make sure they hadn't left a trace of evidence that they'd been there. Nico grabbed Daniel's collar and Kole took his hand.

They popped up on the Hermes table in the dining pavilion. Kole's foot was on Travis' plate, which caused Connor to fall over laughing. She bowed dramatically and jumped over their heads onto the ground.

"We have arrived!" Kole announced.

"I hadn't noticed." Chiron muttered. Almost as soon as he jumped off the table, a symbol floated over Daniel's head. "Welcome, Daniel Vegas, son of Apollo." Chiron stamped his hoof for silence.

The Apollo cabin burst into cheers, herding Daniel over to their table.

"Anyway, back to breakfast!" Chiron called. Kole took her seat at the Hermes table, and Nico crossed to his table. "I've decided to introduce a new war game." The whole pavilion went silent in anticipation. "The campers will be divided into two teams, one twice as large as the other. The larger team will split up and hide in the forest, which of course will be stocked. The smaller team will have to locate the entire opposing team. They have one hour. If they haven't found the entire team, they lose. If they give up before time runs out, they forfeit. Prizes are new schedules and no kitchen duty." Chiron announced.

The pavilion erupted into cheers. "Its hide and seek on steroids!" Travis bellowed.

"We will be playing this game tonight in place of campfire, right after dinner." Chiron added. "Oh and one more thing! No magic items allowed! Weapons are unnecessary, and against the rules. You will be practicing hunting and stalking techniques."

A collective groan came from the Ares cabin.

After breakfast, Kole went searching for Piper. She'd befriended the older girl soon after she'd come to camp, and she had a question for her.

"Hey Piper!" Kole jogged to the end of the canoe lake dock, where Piper sat. She seemed to be talking to the naiads.

"Oh, hey Kole!" Piper turned around. Kole sat on the edge of the dock beside her.

"I had a question for my people expert." Kole said.

"Ooooh. I see." Piper wiggled her eyebrows.

"Not like that!" Kole amended. "While we were going to pick up Daniel, Nico was all nice and friendly, but then as soon as we got Daniel, they were both constantly at each other's throats! They were arguing like crazy over the stupidest things. I don't even get it." Kole threw up her hands in exasperation.

"What exactly happened at the dance?" Piper asked.

"I danced with Nico until we found the kid and then I danced with him to draw him away from his friends and tell him what was going on. He didn't really listen though, he was like flirting the whole time. Then this giant guy came and I defeated him then we all shadow traveled away." Kole shrugged.

"Oh, I see what's going on here. They're competing!" Piper grinned evilly.

"Over what? I don't get it!" Kole exclaimed.

"Over you, you dummy!" Piper laughed.

Kole went silent, her eyes wide in realization. "Wait, so-"

"Yep!" Piper giggled.

"It's not funny!" Kole protested. "This is horribly awkward! Nico's my best friend and Daniel is a high and mighty Apollo kid!"

"I'll have to tell my sisters about this! We haven't had a good bit of drama since Drew tried to make a move on Percy!" Piper stood up.

"No! Don't tell them about- whatever it is this is!" Kole took off after Piper.

Nico's POV

The day passed quite uneventfully for Nico. Kole was doing something with Piper all day, so Nico just sat on the beach. It was getting a little cold to be by the water, but he sat there for most of the day.

About five in the afternoon, Kole came down to the beach, looking exhausted and disheveled. She had smudged makeup all over her face, and she had a too big sweatshirt on. Nico waved her over, and she joined him on the rock.

"What in Hades happened to you?" Nico asked, grinning.

"Shut up." Kole glared at him. Nico chuckled. The sound of the conch shell rang through the valley. Kole face palmed. "I can't get five minutes of rest." She dragged herself to her feet.

"But we have a fun game after…" Nico reminded her.

"Oh joy. I get to watch the Ares cabin come up with ways to pulverize people without weapons." Kole groaned.

"Or kick their butts." Nico added.

"True."

They joined their friends for dinner.


	12. Chapter 12

**I took a fan's advice... Keep throwing ideas out their guys, and review, review, be awesome, review oh and did I say to review?**

Nico's POV

After everyone finished eating, Chiron called order.

"The hiding team will be the Zeus, Ares, Hermes, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Athena cabins. Seeking team will be Hades, Demeter and Hecate." Chiron called.

"I will never be found!" Kole yelled into the silence. Everyone busted up laughing and cheering.

"The hiding team will have fifteen minutes to hide before the seeking team is released." Chiron shouted over the noise as the hiding team fled the pavilion into the forest.

Fifteen minutes later, Nico joined his team in the forest. He crept through the shadows, his eyes darting around, searching for a trace of life. Then he froze, hearing breathing. Nico rolled his eyes, then called, "Come out, Andrea."

A short, blonde Aphrodite girl came out from behind a bush. "Finally. I got mud in my nails!" she shrieked. Nico rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long night.

Kole's POV

Kole had found the most perfect hiding spot ever. She was thirty feet in the air, in a pine tree. Her back was pressed to the trunk of the tree, and she was dressed all in black, making her almost invisible. Six people passed right underneath her, completely oblivious. Kole had to stifle her laugh every time someone walked by. She was keeping track of the time, and she was getting really excited when it got down to five minutes.

"Koooole…. Oh Kole!" She heard Nico's singsong voice.

Kole froze, holding her breath. She could barely make out his shape in the dark and he was hovering around her tree, looking everywhere. Kole stayed completely still. Four minutes. Nico pushed around some bushes. Three minutes. He checked behind a boulder. Two minutes. He stomped around in frustration. One minute.

"You idiot! The trees! Of course she's gonna be in a tree!" Nico slapped himself. "Check the trees, check the trees."

Kole tried not to hyperventilate. Nico stepped over to the tree she was in. He started looking up-

And the horn echoed in the distance.

"YES YES YES YES YES YES!" Kole screamed, shooting to her feet on her branch. "SUCKAZ!" she yelled. She tossed a sparkle bomb into the air for old times' sake, so the whole camp could see it. Down below, Nico groaned and dropped to his knees.

"Why me?! Whyy!" he lay flat on his back on the ground. Kole dropped out of the tree and almost landed on his face. She did a crazy little victory dance. The other campers gathered around to watch the scene as Nico, who was lightly dusted in sparkles groaned and Kole celebrated. The hiding team rearranged their schedules, and Kole became a celebrity for saving the game.

The next day, Nico wandered around during his free time, considering going to the beach. The idea was vetoed when he spotted Kole in the practice arena, beating the crud out of some dummies. He hopped over the gate around the combat ring. He had his sword in his hand.

Nico crept up behind Kole, then looped his arm around her shoulders. She gasped in surprise, but then her elbow swung back into Nico's stomach. She spun and slashed her sword at him, and he raised his blade just in time. Black metal clanged against bronze, time after time. Kole ducked under Nico's sword and whapped him in the ribs with the flat of her blade. She tried to duck under his swing, but Nico caught the hilt of her blade with the tip of his own. He twisted and pushed down, and her sword clattered to the ground. Kole narrowed her eyes, and let out a snarl of determination.

Kole ducked under a blow and stepped inside Nico's next strike. Her face was inches from his, and she smiled before slamming her forearm into his wrist, making him drop his sword, which Kole promptly kicked away.

**this linebreak is talking to spiesareawesome**

Kole stepped back, shaking out her arms and flicking her hair out of her face. She stood naturally in a defensive position, her arms guarding her face and torso. Nico grinned.

Kole aimed a kick at him, and Nico grabbed her foot, trying to knock her off balance. She wrenched her leg out of his grasp, which effectively knocked him off balance. Kole grabbed his arm and swung him around so his arm was awkwardly behind his body. She brought her knee up into his stomach and pushed him away. Nico caught himself, arms out to catch his balance. He turned around to see Kole ready for more.

"I could do this all day, Death Boy." She grinned as she swung her arm up to block his blow. Nico ducked under her next punch, then tackled her. He swept her up, so she was flung over his shoulder. She kicked her legs and beat his back as he spun around to throw her off. "You jerk!" she shouted. Kole started tickling him, and he almost dropped her on her head. Kole swung her legs down, flipping Nico over. He landed on his back, the air knocked out of him. Kole landed on her feet, standing over him triumphantly. She panted, smiling hugely, leaning over. "I win."

"Not so fast, Pranky Pants." Nico winked at her, then swept her off her feet with his leg. She landed right on top of him, knocking the breath out of both of them.

"What the heck-oof- gerroff me!" Nico huffed.

"You're the one who got me here in the first place!" Kole protested.

She finally managed to get off him, and then she lie on her back beside him, panting.

"Well that was interesting."

Kole looked up to see Piper and Jason standing outside the ring.

"Oh hi guys." She dropped her head back down. Piper laughed. "Oh shut up." Kole glared at her.

That evening, Kole and Nico sat on the beach together as the sun was swallowed by the horizon. The salty wind whipped their hair into their faces and the waves crashed over their feet.

"You know, you were right." Kole said, the setting sun illuminating her face.

"About what?"

"Giving someone a chance. I guess there are good people out there."

Nico grinned.


	13. Chapter 13

**Once again, I bow to the demands of my awesome readers. You guys rule. Soooo, if you like/want to see more, REVIEW.**

Nico's POV

Nico was excited to see his sister again. Hazel was coming to Camp Half Blood with Frank for two weeks. She was supposed to arrive later that afternoon, so Nico was going insane trying to clean up his cabin, which was quite disastrous.

Kole noticed him rushing back and forth between the braziers and his cabin, holding garbage cans.

"What in Hades are you doing, Death Boy?" Kole asked, grinning as he dumped stuff into the eternal fire.

"Trying to clean up my cabin." He banged the garbage can against the rim, trying to get out a rotten banana peel. "Hazel's coming to visit."

"Oh cool! Hazel's awesome." Kole followed him into his cabin.

"Oh my gods." She plugged her nose and surveyed the pig sty. "When's she coming?"

"Two hours." Nico started shoving pillows into cases.

"You're gonna need some help." Kole raised an eyebrow as he started kicking stuff under beds.

"Ya think?"

Kole started throwing laundry into baskets and making beds.

Two hours later, the cabin was spotless. The beds were made, floors swept, garbage thrown out, and laundry folded and put away.

"You're a life saver." Nico said, sitting on a bunk beside Kole.

"You owe me one. You better start thinking up how to pay me back, mister." She elbowed him.

Nico grinned. "I think I may have an idea already." He said.

**TreyTheGreatAndPowerful and AlbinoMuskrat, this is for you!**

Kole turned to face him, about to ask what he meant, but she never got the chance. Nico slid his hand under her chin, pulling her into a kiss. Kole grunted in surprise.

When he pulled back, Kole was blushing furiously. "Will that do?" Nico asked, smiling in spite of himself.

"Eh. I think I need another one to even it out." Kole answered. He grinned and kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her waist.

The sound of the conch shell rang out, announcing the arrivals of visitors from Camp Jupiter.


	14. Chapter 14

**May I just say, enjoy it while it lasts. Cause something is about to happen...**

**DOUBLE YOUR AWESOMENESS BY REVIEWING. I'M OPEN TO ANY FAN SUGGESTIONS.**

Nico's POV

After Nico went to meet Hazel and Frank, Kole disappeared. He hung out with his friends most of the day, and he didn't see her once. Nico started to get a little worried, and he wanted to go look for her, but he couldn't really leave Frank and Hazel yet.

He was wondering if he'd gone a little far earlier. It'd felt right, even though he had no idea where it had come from. He was terrified he'd lose her because he'd been foolish and let his feelings control him.

Hazel apparently picked up on that, because she had Frank go off and do something and pulled Nico aside.

"What's wrong?" She looked concerned.

"Um, well, one of my friends, I did something, and I think I might've freaked her out. I haven't seen her since you got here." Nico didn't want to explain the whole situation.

"Wait… her?!" Hazel's eyes widened.

Nico groaned. "Yeah. Her name is Kole. We've been friends for like a month and we went to North Dakota to pick up a demigod and we're like best friends."

"What did you do?" Hazel was desperately trying not to grin.

"I kissed her." Nico buried his face in his hands.

Hazel literally screamed. "OH MY GODS!" She grabbed Nico's shoulders and shook him. "TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED RIGHT NOW."

"Okay, jeez Hazel!" Hazel never did this. Apparently she was excited. "She helped me clean my cabin, and she told me I owed her, and that I had to come up with a way to repay her. So I said that I had an idea and then I kissed her. I don't know why, I just kinda lost control of my feelings for a second. Then she said that that wasn't a good enough payment and that she needed another one to call it even, so she kissed me. And I haven't seen her since and I'm afraid she's mad at me. I don't want to lose her- I mean her friendship." Nico rushed his words.

"She's probably overwhelmed. How about I go find her, and tell her what you think and find out what she thinks?" Hazel couldn't stop grinning.

"Whatever." Nico went into his cabin.

Kole's POV

Kole was overwhelmed. Normally she was really good at hiding her feelings, cloaking what she really felt with fake humor and empty smiles. Somehow, she'd let Nico punch through her wall, which, as expected, ended up with her going through emotional turmoil.

Kole had enjoyed the kiss more than she'd ever admit, even to herself. But she was terrified. Every other time she'd opened her heart, she'd ended up having to scrape the broken pieces off the ground and duct tape it back together. She was pretty sure her heart was mostly duct tape now. Kole had been determined not to let anyone else in after Avery. But of course it didn't work that way.

So Kole went where she always did when she was confused or angry or scared or all of those things. Her boulder on the beach. She always felt safest up high and near water. Kole never really understood that, but those things comforted her. She'd been sitting at the top of the boulder, the freezing wind whipping through her hair, for three hours when Hazel showed up.

"Hey!" Hazel sat down beside Kole. "You remember me, right?"

"How could I forget? You're one of the Special Seven, saviors of the universe." Kole kept her eyes on the horizon.

"And you're the girl who my brother likes." Hazel retorted.

Kole blushed. "Okay."

"Are you mad at him? He's like, scared out of his mind right now." Hazel asked.

"Scared?"

"Yeah. He thinks he scared you off and that you don't like him anymore."

"Anymore?"

"He thinks you don't want to be his friend anymore. And he knows that you are scared to open up, too."

"Oh."

"So are you mad at him?"

"No. I guess I'm just scared. Paranoid."

"Do you like him?"

"I- um- does- this is a hard question!"

"Nuh uh! You just don't want to admit it!" Hazel grinned.

"Uhg. Fine. Yeah, I like him. Mister Death Boy who doesn't like people, being touched, or having feelings." Kole flung up her hands in exasperation.

"Yeah. And he likes Miss Pranky who doesn't like having feelings and hides behind jokes and smiles." Hazel retorted. "So instead of having those walls around each other, how about you make a wall around both of you together? Protect your relationship like you do your hearts. Have you ever thought of that?"

Kole didn't say anything. "I guess you're right." She muttered.

"Now go talk to him." Hazel ordered.

"Alright, alright." Kole slid down the rock, the splashing into the high tide.

Kole found Nico outside his cabin.

"Hey, um, can we talk?" She asked, swallowing embarrassment.

Nico looked up, looking relieved and scared at the same time. "Yes. Definitely. We can always talk."

"Okay. Let's go to the beach."

When they reached the beach, it was almost dark. They walked side by side, and for once, Kole didn't splash him.

"I talked with Hazel." Kole started. "She said- she said that we should let down the walls. Protect a relationship like we do our hearts. But double strength."

"And what do you think of that?" Nico asked, kicking a chunk of driftwood.

"Well, um, I guess I think it's a good idea." Kole shrugged.

"I think it's a great idea. Think how much stronger we'd be together."

"Think how much harder it would be on the other if something happened to one of us! We're demigods, every time we leave camp, we risk our lives. I don't want to feel that pain!" Kole sat down in the sand.

"But do you want to feel that happiness?" Nico asked quietly, crouching beside her.

Kole looked up at him, and her features fixed into a look of determination. "Yes."

"Do you think I want to?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think we can help each other reach that? Because I know you always make me smile."

"It's a full time job!"

"See? Told you." Nico smiled at her.

"I guess your smile makes me smile. Okay. But just a warning, I've never had, um, this kind of relationship." Kole looked away.

"Me neither. We can teach each other."

"Oh, and we might want to keep this a secret for a little while." Kole grimaced. "Piper…"

"Oh yeah, that would be bad. I'm good at secrets." Nico took her hand.

"So what are you now? Cause boyfriend just, is a little awkward to me…" Kole asked.

"Yeah, I agree."

"You're my person."

"Okay. Person."


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello people. A few peoples didn't like the whole 'person thing' but I just felt like there needed to be a period of weirdness. But they are now boyfriend/girlfriend. **

**Sooo, gold stars to everyone who reviewed. And now, a glimpse of Nico's thoughts!**

**Nico: I hate you. You torture me.**

**Me: Hey, I gave you a girlfriend!**

**Nico: Yeah, but then you make this happen! So therefore, I hate you.**

**Me: It's not a story if there's no tragedy!**

**Kole: I do appreciate a good story, BUT NOBODY HURTS THE PEOPLE I LOVE.**

**Me: Deal with it.**

Nico's POV

Nico was in a great mood. He and Kole were on the same team for Capture the Flag. It was a week after they'd finally admitted they liked each other. The day after, she'd finally let him say she was his girlfriend, but no one else knew yet.

Anyway, he was racing through the forest, Kole running, invisible, beside him. So far they'd taken down ten opponents together, and they were on their way to the flag. Unfortunately, that flag was guarded by a loose ring of eight campers. Apparently they'd left some people behind. Nico engaged a few, while Kole caused general chaos amongst the rest.

"Over here! Behind you! That guy just punched you!" Kole taunted. Nico took out four campers, knocking them unconscious. The last one however, was tougher. The kid knocked his feet out from under him, and Nico slammed to the ground. He managed to ward off a few blows, but then the kid went flying sideways. Kole appeared, sitting on his chest, and knocked him out.

Then she grabbed the flag and took off running. Nico followed right behind her, warding off any attackers, until they crossed the border.

"Yeah!" Their team gathered around, lifting Kole up on their shoulders.

"Bam! Feel the Hermes burn!" Travis and Connor hollered.

Daniel shoved his way through the crowd and looped his arm around Kole's waist. "Nice job, babe!" Kole wriggled uncomfortably. "Next time, you should hook up with me instead of that loser." Daniel face was inches from hers.

Nico was steaming. He was ready to slap that look right off Daniel's face, but Kole had it under control. She twisted Daniel's hand the wrong way and slipped out of his grip.

"He's not a loser." Kole said, before crossing to talk to Piper, who had come up to congratulate her.

A piercing noise broke through the cheers of the campers. Nico just had time to wonder what was going on before a arrow obviously full of Apollo's pure music extract exploded in the middle of the mob of demigods. Most of the people, fell to their knees. Nico stumbled to his feet, but a hand clapped over his mouth.

And everything disappeared, swallowed by a darkness deeper than Tartarus.

**BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I WARNED YOU! 5 REVIEWS BEFORE I UPDATE PEEPS.**


	16. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**Nico: These people don't want to read about me being tortured.**

**Me: Why not?! It's a great story!**

**Nico: You are evil. **

**Me: I'm an author.**

**Nico: Same thing.**

**Me: True.**

**Kole: Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. *cries***

**Me: I don't think she likes this very much.**

**Nico: Why can't you make something good happen? You hold fate in your hands, and you do this. You got problems, bro.**

**Me: Hello! You see this awesome girlfriend that you have?! And if you have fate in your hands, ya gotta do something fun with it...**

**Nico: REVIEW SO THAT WE CAN GET TO THE HAPPILY EVER PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU.**


	17. Chapter 17

**You peoples rock. Nico says thanks... or at least he would if he were here... BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *THUNDER AND LIGHTNING* **

**Sooo review to save the Nikole ship **

Kole's POV

The first thing Kole thought of when her vision cleared was Nico. He was nowhere to be seen. She'd been moving toward him when the arrow hit, but he was gone. Everyone else seemed to be there, but no Nico.

Kole tried not freak out. She went around, making sure people were okay, and checking for Nico. She bumped into Hazel while circling through the crowds.

"Where's Nico?" Kole demanded.

"I don't know!" Hazel responded, getting frantic. Frank tried to calm her down, but it didn't help.

"We have to find him! Where's Chiron?" Kole ran back through the crowds and bumped right into him. "Chiron! Nico's gone!"

"Okay. Calm down. I'm sure he's here somewhere." He soothed.

"He's not! If he was, he'd be right here!" Kole stomped her foot. "We have to find him!"

"We need to make sure everyone's okay first. Then we will see about Nico. Go gather all of the head counselors to the rec room." Chiron commanded.

Ten minutes later, the head counselors were in the room, as Chiron had ordered. Kole had dragged most of them there by their ears.

"Nico's gone. Everyone else is still here, but not him. We have to find him!" Kole slammed her fist into the table.

"Calm yourself, child." Chiron muttered.

"No! I while not calm myself! My bo-best friend is missing, and I am not gonna calm myself until I've found him!" Kole argued.

"You can't just go barging off into the open, trying to find him! We have no idea where he could be! And you're a powerful and important demigod, you just can't go after him!" Chiron reprimanded.

"And he's not powerful and important?!" she shouted back. The other counselors were looking back and forth between the two. No one had ever yelled at Chiron like that before. They were quite entertained.

"I didn't say that, but what's the point in losing two demigods?" Chiron said, his voice calm and steady. "We don't have any idea where he is. As I said, you cannot just go wandering around trying to find him."

"Watch me." Kole growled before storming off. Hazel followed after her.

"Hey, Kole, calm down." Hazel called, catching up to her.

"Stop saying that! I can't, I won't!" Kole kept walking.

"You really don't know where to go though! You'll get attacked at every turn." Hazel stood in front of her so she'd stop moving.

"You think I don't know that? I lived on the street for a long period of time. I think I know what I'm getting into." Kole said, her voice low.

"Do you have any idea how much worse it'll be with full training? You're a powerful demigod, the monsters will sense you as soon as you step over the border!" Hazel protested.

Kole turned around and pulled off her sweatshirt so Hazel could see the scars lacing her shoulders. There were layers of them under her tank top, thick white scars from claws and whips and swords. "I don't think it can get much worse than what I've seen." Kole kept walking toward her cabin.

"At least wait for Chiron to figure something out, and send you with a search team. I'll go with you." Hazel pleaded.

"Fine." Kole lied. Ten minutes later, she had her backpack in hand and was sneaking through the cabins. Everyone else was in the cabins, but there were lights on.

Kole was almost to the border when someone appeared in front of her. Daniel. "Whacha doing babe?" He asked. Somehow Kole ended up with her back pressed to the wall of a cabin, Daniel's arms on either side of her face.

"None of your business." Kole glared at him. She refused to back down from this loser.

He leaned closer. "Well I think I'll make it my business." He whispered. "Now where could you be going at this hour?" His face was inches from hers. "Oh, I know. To go save your stupid boyfriend." Daniel spat the word like it was the worst thing he could think of.

"Leave me alone." Kole glared at him.

"I think I want to come with you." Daniel muttered, his hands moving lower down her back.

"Yeah frekin right." Kole growled. "Now get your hands off me, you son of a-"

"Son of a steaming hot god?" Daniel smirked. "I don't think I like that idea much. Now, you can take me with you and no one will find out about your little excursion, or- no, actually that's your only option."

"Tempting." Kole ran her hands up his arms.

He smirked with a very full of himself look. Then Kole flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the cabin wall and slid to the ground, gaping like a fish. "I choose option B, jerk." She kicked him, to insure that he wouldn't follow, then ran off into the night.

Nico's POV

Nico woke up in a dark room an eternity later. He couldn't see anything, and all he could feel was pain. Fuzzy images of bashed in faces and demonic grins floated in front of him. He had no idea where he was or what in Hades had happened. One thing he did know, was that he had to find Kole. He was determined to get up, solve his situation, but consciousness slipped out of his grasp.

Kole's POV

Kole had nagged a pegasus from the stables before she left; a gray stallion who she'd ridden since she started camp. The freezing night air went straight through her jacket, and the beanie she wore didn't keep her hair from whipping into her face. Kole knew it was stupid and reckless to leave with no leads, but she was pretty sure she knew where to get a good start.

Four hours later, her pegasus was practically falling out of the air with exhaustion. The sun wouldn't rise for another few hours, but Kole new the poor beast couldn't take anymore. They set down in some park, and the pegasus started grazing. Kole figured they were probably in Ohio. At least, she hoped so, because that was where she wanted to be. She needed to fin Ichnaea. Goddess of tracking.

Kole followed the nearest main road to find that she was indeed, in Ohio. She kept her eyes peeled for tell tale signs of Ichnaea. That was one goddess who always left a way to find her. Kole eventually found drops of ichor and torn white scraps of fabric that she followed into a dark forest. Kole stumbled into a clearing almost an hour later, thoroughly exhausted.

"Ah! You have found me! You have proven yourself a great tracker. And for that, I will reward you with a single favor." Kole heard a sweet voice. She looked up to see a terrifying sight.

The goddess was eight feet tall, with long perfect brunette curls piled on top of her head. She wore a long white Ancient Greek gown and a shimmering fur cloak clasped across her shoulders. But that wasn't the terrifying part. The terrifying part was her gray, decaying skin and empty eye sockets. When she moved, Kole could see her skull flickering underneath.

"OH MY- hello, Ichnaea, mighty goddess of tracking. I do actually need a favor. So that's dandy." Kole stuttered, trying not to let her eyes bug out.

"Speak your wish, hero." Her sweet voice kind of freaked Kole out.

"My b-friend is missing. I have no idea where he went, and I need your help picking up his trail." Kole asked, running her hands through her hair.

"What is he called?" Ichnaea asked.

"What? Oh, his name is Nico. Nico di Angelo." Kole told her.

"Ah. The Ghost King. Prince of the Underworld." The goddess tilted her head to the side. Kole was afraid her head might fall off if she tilted it any farther, because of the weight of her hair. "I'm afraid he is cloaked from my sight. However, I can give you my blessing and send you to someone who might know how to help." The goddess said in a would be helpful tone.

Kole bit her lip to keep from cursing. "Okay. Anything will help."

The goddess lifted her hand, palm up, and a slim bronze circlet appeared in her hand. "Wear this ornament and your sight will be enhanced, helping you to see where your friend has gone. It might help to go back to wear he was last seen."

"Crap." Kole muttered.

"And I have a friend in California who will be able to help you. I can get you to her residence, and then you can go back and start tracking your friend." Ichnaea told her.

"Okay. Thank you so much, your greatness." Kole bowed. She took the circlet and put it on. Immediately her senses sharpened. She could hear every twig rustle in the breeze, make out the beetles crawling through the underbrush, smell the tang of pine needles in the air.

"I wouldn't thank me. I would thank Aphrodite." Ichnaea gave a sickening skeletal grin, then waved a hand carelessly.

Kole's vision went black.

When she woke up, she was in San Francisco, sitting at a table across from a girl maybe fourteen. Kole's eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet.

The girl put down a book. The Blood of Olympus? Strange name for a book.

"Calm down. I see Ichnaea sent you. She probably told you I could help, right?" The girl said. She was dressed in a bright orange T shirt and skinny jeans. Kole couldn't help but think of a camp shirt.

"Um, yeah." Kole eyed the girl warily.

"You can call me Nick." The girl flicked her short chocolate hair out of her face. Her piercing dark eyes were almost black, and she seemed to be examining Kole's soul. "Sit down and tell me your problems." Nick gestured to the chair across from her.

"Okay then." Kole sat down. "My friend is missing. I have no idea where he went and I really need to find him."

"Name?" The girl fingered a golden necklace she wore.

"Nico di Angelo." Kole answered.

"So he's your boyfriend." The girl smirked.

"N-yeah."

"When did he go missing? Do you remember any details?" Nick questioned.

"Last night. Someone shot an Apollo arrow into the crowd of…people, and most people got stunned. When I could see again, Nico was gone." Kole explained.

The girl studied Kole. Her calculating eyes were kind of unnerving. "Give me your hand."

Kole held out her hand. Nick rubbed the silver skull ring Kole wore with the tip of her index finger. "This was his?" she asked. Kole nodded. "Oooh, I see it now." Nick smiled. "Lyssa is up to her old tricks again."

"Who?" Kole asked.

"Oh, nobody. Now, I can help you find him, but I have a price." Nick leaned her chair onto its back legs, crossing her arms.

"If it gets Nico back, anything." Kole took a deep breath.

"I need you to sign your name using this pen." Nick put a plain ballpoint pen on the table in front of her.

"That's a joke, right?" Kole raised an eyebrow.

"I kid you not." Nick promised.

"Fine." Kole grabbed the pen and scrawled her name onto a napkin.

"Last name also." Nick told her. Kole scowled and added her last name. The writing glowed purple for a split second, and Kole felt a strange burning sensation in the tips of her fingers, which shot up her arms and down her back.

"What in Hades was that?!" she demanded, pulling out her sword.

"That was my price." Nick grinned, a slightly crazed look in her eyes.

Kole shot to her feet and crossed to the girl. She grabbed a fistful of her shirt and held her sword pressed into Nick's back. "Tell me what it does, right now."

"Oh, but I can't do that, dearie. It takes away the magic!" Nick tilted her head, and giggled maniacally. She snapped her fingers and disappeared completely.

Sitting on the ground at Kole's feet was a map. A tiny dot marked where Kole was, by San Francisco Bay. A loopy line traveled from where Kole was all the way across the United States to a black skull in Virginia. It went through almost every state.

"So I go to Virginia. Forget those lines." Kole muttered. The burning sensation returned, but twice as strong this time. Kole almost fell over. "Curse you, maniac." Kole growled.

"Fine. I go to," Kole squinted to read the map. "Salt Lake City."

Nico's POV

Nico had dreams of black clouds drifting through huge cities, making people go completely insane. They ran into walls, flung themselves in front of cars, bashed their heads into walls, climbed up buildings.

The dreams shifted and he saw Kole surrounded by a thick curtain of the black mist, curled in a ball. She was covering her ears and rocking back and forth, muttering to herself. Her shoulders shook with sobs. A cackling voice echoed through the darkness surrounding her. "You will make a great plaything…."

Nico was ripped out of his dreams to see a woman wearing a black Greek style gown with a motorcycle jacket and studded combat boots. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and her eyes had the crazed look of a mad person. "Come, Prince of Death. Let's go play!" She giggled in a scary way that made Nico want to curl in a corner and never come out.

**BETCHA DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING DID YOU**


	18. Chapter 18

**;D this is why none of the fictional characters like me.**

**Nico: CURSE YOU**

**Kole: CURSE YOU**

**Both: WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE**

Kole's POV

Kole hoped she could just pass right through Salt Lake City and hit Vegas, as the map told her to, but nooo. Nothing could ever go that smoothly.

Literally, as soon as she crossed the city limits, a weird demon appeared in her face.

"Finally! Something to feed on." The thing hissed as it lunged at Kole. She parried it's claws and dodged as it's serpentine tail lunged for her legs. Bloodlust lit its eyes as it flew toward her with veiny, batlike wings and huge fangs.

"What in freaking Hades are you?!" Kole screamed as she narrowly avoided being impaled.

The demon answered by knocking Kole down. She scrambled backwards, but the demon's claws closed in her leg. Kole yelled in pain and sliced one of the things wings off, but it simply dragged itself away. She stood up, cursing as she put weight on the leg. The demon lunged for her again, but it didn't get halfway before a silver arrow sprouted from its chest.

Kole fell to her knees. She knew full well what that arrow meant. It meant-

"Hello Kole." Thalia Grace growled from behind her.

"Hello, Lightning Bug."

"It seems I saved your sorry butt yet again."

"I had it under control!" Kole stood up, turning to face her enemy.

"Except for the fact that that was a freakin Keris!"

"What in Hades is that?!"

"That is a demon that feeds on the blood of dead men! They only feed on people who are going to die! Like soon! The longest anyone's ever lived after an attack is two months!" Thalia shouted.

"Well I ain't dying til I've found Nico!" Kole screamed back, expertly hiding her alarm.

"Good luck with that." Thalia crossed her arms. "And what happened to Nico?"

"He was taken by someone. I have a map that will take me to him. He's in Virginia, and I have to go to Vegas." Kole dusted herself off and put her sword back into keychain mode.

"Why Vegas? That's the opposite direction from Virginia." Thalia asked.

"I bumped into a psychopath named Nick, had to sign my name with a cursed pen which makes it so I can't deviate from this map." Kole held up the parchment with the map.

"I hate that kid." Thalia wrinkled her nose.

"What is her deal?"

"Demigod of some unknown goddess, but it must've been the goddess of homicidal maniacs. You're lucky to be alive." Thalia stiffened as a sound echoed through the alley behind them. "We might want to move."

"I don't want your help. I need to find Nico." Kole argued.

"It's the middle of winter. You're running around with a backpack and heading to a place where the temp drops below zero at night. I think you need my help." Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I don't need any of your stupid magic silver camping accessories." Kole hiked her backpack up on her shoulders.

"Fine. Call me when you die and Nico's locked up in a hole somewhere." Thalia retorted, spinning on her heel and walking away. "You know, you could always forget him and join us. We could use a girl like you, with the blessing of Ichnaea and mad weaponry skills." Thalia called over her shoulder.

"And leave my best friend to die?!" Kole screamed. "You have a problem if you think that would ever happen!"

An hour later, Thalia reached her camp to find a magic tent, parka, bow, quiver, and hunting knives missing.

"That sticky fingered child of Mercury." She growled.

Kole raced through the streets of Salt Lake City, wearing her new parka and boots, sword in hand. That stupid daughter of Zeus thought she was the boss of everything. Kole froze when she heard a low growl behind her. A dark shake snaked through the shadows behind her. Kole ducked under a weird spike that seemed to be dripping poison. She nocked a special silver tipped arrow and shot it into the dark shape. A weird screaming sound ripped through the air, and Kole flinched. The thing dissolved into a black puddle which flowed toward her.

"What in Hades?!" she backed up, then walked away down the alley.

What she didn't know, was that a drop of poison from the spike was dripping slowly down the sleeve of her jacket and over her fingers.

Nico's POV

Nico was bound hand at foot in black chains and thrown into a dark cell. The crazy Goth witch lady stood in front of him. A strange aura waved off her, making Nico want to do crazy things. The look in her eyes was that of a person with a broken mind.

"I hate to tell you, Prince, but your girlfriend is dead. I sent one of my minions to catch her to play with us, but his poison accidentally hit her bare skin. So she kinda dissolved…but not until after she killed my minion!" The witch pouted.

"No. You're lying! I don't believe you!" Nico protested.

The witch waved a hand and Nico saw a vision of Kole stumbling through an alley. She wore a Hunter's parka for some reason, and she was bent over, clutching her stomach.

"You caught me. Yeah, I lied. She's actually in the middle of slowly dying, while trying to find you. She's under two curses! Very resilient. Too bad she's going to die trying to save you." the villain grinned.

"This is fake. I don't believe you. You're lying to me still." Nico said quietly.

"This is live streaming! I swear on the River Styx."

Nico could tell she was telling the truth, that the oath was being kept. He watched in anguish as Kole collapsed against a wall. She pulled her legs up to her chest, her hands covering a bloody wound. The veins in her left hand were traced with black poison.

"I'm gonna find you Nico. If I die, it will be after whoever the piece of crap who kidnapped you is wallowing in Tartarus. I swear on the Styx." Kole muttered. Her face contorted in pain as she dragged herself to her feet, leaning against the wall. The image faded, leaving Nico staring blankly at the wall.

"You- you- I will kill you with my bare hands!" Nico screamed. He strained against his bonds. "I'll get out and save her!"

The witch clucked disapprovingly. "Now, now, Prince, calm down. You have no idea where she is, and even if you could escape, she'd be dead by the time you found her!"

Nico fell to his knees, knowing she was right. Tears streamed down his face. "No! I'll find a way!" he screamed, glaring at her. The ground shook and skeletal hands broke the earth's crust. The witch looked alarmed, but she waved her hand and Nico appeared in some dark, musty basement, where he collapsed in the corner, head in his hands.

**DA DA DAAAAA!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Nico: My chances of survival are diminishing.**

**Kole: Not on my watch**

**Nico: WAIT YOURE ALIVE**

**Me: Both of you back to your corners of misery right now!**

**Free moment of happy/funny for every review!**

Kole's POV

Kole was very mad now. The stupid demon had gotten her in the side somehow, and apparently she'd gotten some of that poison on her. Kole was determined to keep moving, to find Nico, but her body didn't agree to that idea. She collapsed in an alley somewhere in the middle of Salt Lake City. Wincing, she dug through her backpack to find some ambrosia.

"Come on, I'm not that stupid, am I?" she asked as she desperately dumped out the canvas bag.

"It seems you need some help." Said a voice. A bag of ambrosia landed at her feet.

Kole looked up slowly to see none other than Daniel standing before her.

"Not from you." Kole stood up, trying to not pass out.

"It doesn't seem as if you have a choice at the moment." He smirked. Kole pressed a hand to the wall to support herself. Daniel sauntered over.

"You don't look too good, babe. I think I might have to- carry you somewhere better so you don't die." Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"Heck no." Kole winced as she shifted her weight to grab the ambrosia. She wolfed the whole bag down, and took a deep breath as it started to mend her side. The poison started to fade and the pain in her muscles relaxed.

"But you have to let me stay with you, because I'm untrained and I can't be out there by myself." He made puppy eyes.

"Well then you shouldn't have followed me, idiot." Kole started shoving things back into her backpack. She knew the strength from the ambrosia wasn't going to last, and she had to move while she could. And she was not about to let Mr. Whiney stop her.

"You're too nice to leave me alone on the streets, just like you were when you were a kid, aren't you."

Kole froze. "What do you know about when I was a kid?"

"Your little Death Boy told me." Daniel said.

"No he didn't. He would never do that." Kole shook her head.

"Are you sure? And now I understand what you've been through… I can help you. Nico left you. I'm still here, and I can help you." Daniel crooned.

"He didn't leave me, he was taken!" Kole yelled, spinning around to face him. "If you dare say that again, so help me, I will chain you to a pipe and leave you there forever." She growled at him.

"I understand that you want to keep hoping that he was taken, that he didn't do this to avoid telling you that he doesn't really care about you. But you have to accept it." Daniel started following her as she walked down the alley.

"I warned you." Kole said.

"What?"

Kole spun around and glared at Daniel. "Leave right now and go back to camp. You need your training if you want to go on following me, because I could beat the crap out of you if I wanted to. And every word you say, I'm getting closer and closer to wanting to."

"Fine. But you're going to regret this." Daniel said, fear flickering through his eyes. He turned around and walked away.

Kole watched his retreating back until he was gone. And she walked on, towards Vegas, towards Nico.

Nico's POV

Nico could practically feel his sanity slipping away with every hour that passed in that cell. He could hear drunken voices echoing through the room, telling him there was no hope, it's all ending anyway.

"Shut up!" he screamed. Nico wondered, briefly, if those voices were being inflicted upon him, or if they came from within him. "I'm going to get out of here!" he covered his ears.

Eventually he fell asleep in a corner, but dreams weren't much better. Until he stumbled into Kole's dreams.

It wasn't like it normally was, though. It was like he was held back, like he could see the dream, but couldn't enter it. Kole was wondering through an endless maze, yelling his name.

"I'm okay! I'm right here!" he tried to shout, but his voice didn't work. He watched as Kole tumbled down a seemingly bottomless tunnel.

Nico woke in a cold sweat, still in his cell. The witch appeared in front of him, giggling.

"The magic in these walls is already taking affect…" she said. "Soon your mind will be all mine!"

"Yeah right." Nico growled.

"Now eat some food." She kicked a tray toward him. "Feed the madness and it feeds on you… Feed the madness and it feeds on you…" she sang before disappearing.

Nico shuddered and examined the tray. On it was a rotten banana with maggots writhing inside it and a still twitching cockroach.

"I ain't feeding no madness." He kicked the tray away.

"Oh yes." The witch's disembodied voice echoed through the room. "Starting tomorrow, you get to work for me!"

"In your dreams, psycho." Nico lay down in the corner. He needed to get his strength up if he wanted to shadow travel out of this place.


	20. Chapter 20

**Sorry for taking so long. Life has been...hectic lately. **

**Review, people! I think we hit like 3500 views the other day and I had a party. So give me reasons to write more. And maybe reasons to write good stuff lol**

**Enjoy!**

Kole's POV

When Kole finally reached Vegas, the ambrosia had worn off. It had gone its length, and healed most of her minor injuries. The poison, however, still traced her veins, and the bite from the cursed demon still decorated her shirt with blood. Her vision was fuzzy, and the neon signs and headlights were blurry blobs floating in a sea of moving faces. Kole braced herself against the side of building, but when a hasty pedestrian smashed into her, she could barely stop herself from face planting. She could tell she was going to lose consciousness, however much she fought it.

A dark figure swam into her vision, and she could've sworn the person had glowing eyes. Dusk was falling, and Kole strained to make out the features of the woman approaching her.

"Peace, child." Kole heard a soft voice before she blacked out.

When Kole woke up, she was in a hotel. She lay on a deliciously soft foam mattress, fluffy pillows under her head. Kole sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Ah, you wake at last."

Kole looked up to see a tall woman standing before her. Large eyes sparkled under a veil of luscious black locks that tumbled over the woman's bare shoulders. She wore an off the shoulder tunic style top with a wide leather belt and leggings, along with impossibly high heels.

"Venus?" Kole asked, her eyes widening.

"Aphrodite, if you don't mind." The goddess inclined her head gracefully. Her eyes changed from green to blue to brown as Kole watched.

"Why am I here? Why are you here?"Kole stood up.

"I'm here to help, of course!" Aphrodite smiled. "I caught a whiff of true love and followed it! So now, I'm here to help create the most epic love story of the era!"

"I don't need or want your help." Kole said evenly.

"Oh sure you do!" Aphrodite waved a hand and a puff of pink smoke appeared. "I'll give you my blessing, to start."

Kole looked at the mirror the goddess was holding. Kole's bloody T shirt and jeans had been replaced by a freaking prom dress. A full pink skirt floated around Kole's knees, and a corset style top was practically suffocating her. Her hair had been magically lengthened and curled, and she had eyeliner and mascara applied thickly. When she blinked, sparkly eye shadow could be seen.

"Oh no way in Hades! Get it off! Burn it! This shouldn't exist!" Kole screamed.

"Oh, fine. I'll give you some questing clothes so you can save your love in style!" Aphrodite giggled. She snapped her fingers and gave Kole some much more comfortable clothes: a black biker jacket and a hot pink tank top with skinny jeans and knee high sneakers.

"Now get the makeup off please!" Kole screeched.

"But it makes you look so gorgeous!" Aphrodite protested. "It stays."

"Sometimes I really don't like you. Now are you actually going to help, or are you just going to shove me into annoying outfits?" Kole demanded.

"Oh yes, I meant to tell you, that if you find Hades, he can get rid of your curse."

"Which one?" Kole asked drily.

"The one where you die, and the one where you have to follow that map." Aphrodite waved a finger.

"What?! Where is he?" Kole demanded.

"You'll find him somewhere in these streets. He seems to prefer the Black Casino of late, though, so you may want to start there." Aphrodite pursed her lips.

"Oh. That's fantastic." Kole grumbled.

Nico's POV

Nico stepped into the shadows in the corner of his cell. Instead of the normal welcoming cold of the shadow realm, though, he felt as if he was on fire. An agonizing pain wrenched his gut and he appeared at the feet of his captor.

"Naughty naughty! Your black magic won't work here! The only thing that works here, is my magic! So you better settle in, my Prince. If you try that again, we'll be playing in Tartarus!" The witch cackled.

Nico gasped, trying to get his breath back. He didn't know what to do. He was starting to panic now, without any of his powers working, Kole supposedly dying. Did he even want to escape? What was the point of it all?

"Yes, yes. Good thoughts. Seed for the madness!" The dark goddess smiled gruesomely.

Nico tried to clear his head, to get rid of those thoughts, but they only came back.

"No, no. You must keep them! Prince, let them grow! Good thoughts!" She snapped her fingers, and Nico was back in his cell.

Nico sat in the corner, his knees pulled up to his chest. "Think happy thoughts." He muttered to himself. He remembered when Kole had trapped him in the banana net, and covered him in glitter. He remembered how they'd dominated capture the flag together.

And he remembered the one sweet kiss, the warm feeling that had blossomed in his chest when he looked at her, and he knew that he had to get back to her, no matter what the cost.


	21. Chapter 21

**Finally updated! Sorry for taking a kajillion years again. So next chapter will have the REUNION OF KOLE AND NICO. However, this reunion will cease to exist unless fiiiive reviews are posted on this new chapter. **

**Nico: Please! I wanna see her again!**

**Kole: I have to find him!**

**Me: talk to them... *points to readers***

**READY SET GO**

Kole's POV

Three hours after her meeting with Aphrodite, Kole was squeezing between underdressed people in the Black Casino. She'd been searching for almost a whole hour.

Eventually she gave up. Kole climbed up on top of a pool table. "HADES!" she screamed. A man looked up from across the room and met her eyes. The security guards started heading towards Kole, but the god snapped his fingers and they appeared outside the casino.

"Aphrodite said you could get rid of my curses." Kole said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Aphrodite doesn't know what she's talking about. And who are you?" Hades asked.

"I'm Nico's g- friend. He's been taken by some psychopath goddess, which you would know it you cared about him at all." Kole glared at him.

"I do care, for your information. He's been hidden from my view for a while." Hades replied.

"Which you did nothing about. Now can you help me help him, or are you going to be the horrible father everyone thinks you are?" Kole knew she was playing a dangerous game, but she was getting desperate.

"You better watch yourself, young lady." Hades said. "I have half a mind to incinerate you and move on with my life."

"And leave your son to die? Or hate your guts for the rest of his life? Are you really just going to let him die?" Kole asked.

"Fine. I'll help you, but only for my son. You make him happy." Hades waved a hand, and Kole felt the weight of death leave her.

"Thank you." She had something else she needed to ask the god, though.

"Now if that's all, I'll be going." Hades said.

"Goodbye, my lord." Kole said. Hades disappeared in cloud of black. Kole rolled her eyes and headed for the nearest airport.

Kole found an airport easily, but it took all her mist manipulating and Hermesian powers to get on the plane, and within an hour, she was on her way to Virginia. Towards Nico.

Kole had been trying her best to keep moving, and ignore her feelings, as she'd done her whole life, but now, in the quiet and loneliness of the plane, it all hit her at once.

Nico was gone. She might never see him again. She'd get her heart broken in the end after all. But Kole refused to let that happen. She wouldn't stop fighting to get back to him. Kole was a little confused of how her feelings for Nico had gotten so strong. She felt as if she'd known him her whole life, like she knew everything about him. She'd been so sure that he would be the one to mend her heart, and then she'd lost him. Kole felt like she could be her real self around Nico, not having to hide her flaws, or her feelings. He accepted her, said he loved her, even. No one else had ever said that to her, in all her life.

And that was why she couldn't lose him.

Nico's POV

Nico spent hours wandering through the witch's maze. She'd told him that if he could find the exit, she'd let him go. He never really believed her, but he didn't really have much else to go on.

He doubted that he would ever be free, that anyone was worried for him, or trying to find him. His heart hoped Kole was missing him, searching for him, but he refused to hope that. He didn't want to think that she was in danger because of him.

Nico knew the witch's words were getting to him, making him lose his grip on hope, on sanity, even. He figured he would die here, alone.

His only regret would be leaving Kole, her heart broken after what he'd promised.

**BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! **


	22. Chapter 22

**Six reviews! YAAY! Soo, as promised, the reunion chapter! Review for the next one, and we can get to the upcoming cliffy! **

**I'm considering a nice chapter from Daniel's POV. Maybe he'll like, get some bricks dropped on his head? Or maybe Hazel? I feel like we need some funnies at CHB. Or some overall anxiety, terror, worry, you know, the works.**

**As always, review!**

**Shoutout to Emilee, Spiesareawesome, iamawesome237, Ya I'm THAT chick, and TreytheGreatandPowerful. Thanks a lot guys!**

**And lastly, to quote Poseidon, BRACE YOURSELVES**

**And .liu, more details as suggested.**

Kole's POV

When the plane finally landed, five hours later, Kole was out of there in a flash. She hated being cooped up for so long, and she was anxious to find Nico.

The map she'd gotten from the psychopathic kid in San Francisco had a vague dot marking the city of Richmond, which conveniently was where Kole was. She had absolutely no idea where to go now. But she did have an idea how to find out…

Kole found a map of the city and made herself a list of all of the most probable monster locations. If she couldn't find a way to Nico's captor, she'd have to get the captor to come to her.

And so Kole wandered through the city yelling randomly and walking through the biggest crowds of people, hoping to attract the attention of some monster that could get her to Nico.

After an hour, she was ready to give up. Not a single monster had confronted her, and it was getting dark. Kole sat down on a bench in the middle of a nice park. Birds flew through the trees around her, and crickets sang in the grass. It was so peaceful, Kole could almost relax. But not quite. She scuffed her designer boots through the gravel at her feet, racking her brain.

"Looking for something?"

Kole shot to her feet, her sword materializing in her hand. "Who in Hades do you think you are?"

"I'm the goddess that has what you want! Your boyfriend!" The woman beamed. She was tall, wearing black heels, dark skinny jeans, and what looked to be a broken straitjacket. Her hair floated around her face in a sheet of frizz, and her pupils were disturbingly tiny. Kole backed up a step. This woman looked dangerously insane.

"Who are you?" Kole lifted her sword. "And what do you want?"

"Lyssa, goddess of rage and insanity, at your service." The woman bowed dramatically. Her image shimmered slightly. "MY NAME IS ELLE. Do you want some cookies?"

"What." Kole was getting a little freaked. Did she have multiple personality disorder or something? She wondered.

"No, I am Lyssa! And I want to kill you, of course. Unfortunately, though, there's someone else in line. Now you'll be coming with me!" Lyssa lunged forward and grabbed Kole's wrists before she could even move.

"Leggo of my you witch!" she yelled, struggling. Then the world faded, and Kole could see nothing but darkness.

Nico's POV

Nico was starting to get really worried when two of his captor's minions came to get him from his cell. He didn't even try to struggle, this time. He let the two crazy men in broken straitjackets take him to the goddess' throne room. They pushed Nico to his knees and chained him to a spike driven into the ground, and gagged him before disappearing.

Nico stared at the ground, unaware and uncaring. His hope had been crushed. He felt like he had when he was in the jar in Greece. Nothing could help him; he was only waiting to die.

He heard a popping sound from the next room, and sounds of muffled yelling.

"Shut up, you stupid girl!" That was Lyssa.

"Mmmhummm!" That voice….

"Will you just shut your mouth!" There was a slapping sound, and the other voice went quiet.

Then Lyssa came into the throne room, where Nico was. She was dragging a girl with chains wrapped around their hands and a blindfold and gag. The prisoner was struggling ferociously, pulling against the chain, but Lyssa just yanked back, almost pulling the girl off her feet.

The goddess shoved the girl forward and she tripped, landing on her knees a few feet from Nico, in the dim shaft of light he sat in.

Could it be? Was there a chance that girl could be….

"Kole?" Nico whispered, but the word was distorted by his gag. The girl sat up straight, turning to the sound of his voice. Lyssa tore the gag of the girl's face, and then Nico saw that it was, indeed his girlfriend. A rush of emotions tore through him: shock, utter joy, terror, but mostly, hope. He felt as if he finally had a real grip on his sanity again.

"Nico? Is that you?" she asked, looking around.

Nico made an affirmative grunt. Kole started moving towards him, trying to follow the sound of his voice, but Lyssa grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her backwards. Kole cried out in surprise as she was dragged to the foot of Lyssa's throne. Nico struggled against his bonds and yelled into his gag in protest.

When Lyssa released Kole, she shot to her feet and spun to face her assaulter. Lyssa laughed.

"This should be fun. As if you could do anything about it!" The witch cackled. Kole almost knocked her over, swinging both fists at her face. The goddess stumbled back a few steps, her palm to her jaw, a shocked looked on her face. Nico almost laughed. But then the goddess backhanded Kole across the face. Some amazing feat of balance let her stay on her feet, but she stumbled backwards.

"Playtime's over. I'll get you two back out later and we'll have some real fun." The witch waved a hand, and Nico momentarily blacked out.

When his vision cleared, he and Kole were back in his cell. He automatically moved toward her, but chains kept him barely a few inches from reaching her. His gag was gone, and so was her blindfold, so when she looked up at him, he could see the joy in her dark eyes.

"I found you! I really did!" Kole exclaimed. She was grinning ear to ear. She stood up, but their chains kept them literally an inch away from each other.

"Why did you follow me? Now we're both stuck here." Nico said, despair closing back in.

"I wasn't going to just leave you to die! You're my best friend!" Kole protested, making a face like, '_That's the stupidest question ever.' _

"But now you're in danger too! I couldn't stand it if you got hurt just because you came to rescue me." Nico said. The space between them was driving him insane. All he wanted was to hold her tight, kiss her. Then he realized that's exactly why the chains were there: to drive them insane. "Forget it. I can't even say how happy I am to see you." He smiled, and yanked, again uselessly, against his chains.

Kole grinned at him, then backed up against the wall, so her chain was limp. "What are you doing?" Nico asked.

"I'm going to kiss you." Kole said, smiling over her shoulder. Nico heard her chains rattling, and she grunted with effort a few times, but a couple minutes later, her hands were free from the handcuffs. Kole ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. And kiss him she did. When she pulled away, she buried her face in his shoulder. Nico hugged her tight, and hid his face in her hair, soaking in the fact that she was really there, in his arms.

Kole undid Nico's chains also, and he still didn't understand how. He sat in the corner, pulling her down on top of him. She curled up in his lap, her head on his shoulder. He held her close, and Kole sighed, relaxing against him.


	23. Chapter 23

**Sorry, had a crazy week full of parties and randomness. Because my birthday is... TOMORROW. YAAY! **

**So anyways, here y'all are. Five reviews for the next chapter! Thanks so much for reading this ppl. It was like a totally random thing and I didn't think anyone would even read it, but boy was I wrong. Thanks!**

Kole's POV

Kole woke up a few hours later, still wrapped in Nico's arms. She took a deep breath, studying his sleeping face. He was almost angelic. She'd met a ton of guys in her life, but Nico, with his explosion of black silk hair going every direction, his dark eyes, so full of emotion, his rare smile, was different from the rest. He was the only one who'd ever genuinely cared for her. Kole was so ridiculously happy she'd found him, and she would've been perfectly content to just sitting there in his embrace for the rest of time.

When Nico woke up and noticed her staring at him, he smiled. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked.

Kole grinned. "No reason. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was deciding when to do this." Nico kissed her, right on the lips. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she loved it when he did that. When they separated, Kole stood up abruptly. "Hey! Get back here!" Nico protested playfully. Kole stretched her arms above her head, and Nico stood up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly.

"So there's the small matter that we're in a cell and being kept prisoner by the goddess of psychos and straitjackets." Nico said.

"What? Oh that." Kole leaned back against him. "I have a plan. Unfortunately, it gives her a day to torture and or drive us insane."

"Well as long as you're alive and kicking, I've got a reason to stay sane and alive. Before- it was horrible. She told me you were dead. I saw you, wandering through alleys, wounded and followed by monsters. I was ready to give up… I swear I almost went insane. But then you came. Right in time." Nico smiled weakly at her.

"Yeah, being horribly wounded wasn't too fun. I wouldn't suggest it." Kole said lightly.

"What even happened to you? How did you get here?" Nico asked, sitting back down and leaning against the wall.

Kole sat beside him, leaning against him. "Well I was attacked by a Keres, and it sliced me up real good, and some other stuff and poison and monsters and all that fun stuff." Kole shrugged.

"Wait. A K-Keres? Does that mean…" Nico froze, a terrified look spreading across his face.

"I found your dad, and he took away the death curse. He said it was for you, because he wanted you to be happy or something." Kole said.

"Maybe he's not so bad after all." Nico reflected. "He's right about one thing, though. You do make me happy." He smiled and kissed her forehead.

Kole grinned. "I thought you didn't like it when people touched you." She said teasingly.

"Well you're not people." He smiled wryly. Kole bumped him with her shoulder, smiling in spite of herself.

The cell door swung open with a crash. "Playtime, birdies!" Lyssa screamed. Both demigods shot to their feet. Nico instinctively edged in front of Kole.

Lyssa snapped her fingers sharply, and heavy cuffs appeared around their wrists, long chains running from their cuffs to the goddess' hands. Iron collars materialized around their necks, with chains connecting to their handcuffs. "Now come along!" Lyssa squealed.

When they reached the throne room, the witch wrapped a blindfold around Nico's face. Kole yelled in protest, pulling against her chains, which were fastened to a spike in the ground.

"Now birdies, let's play a game!"

Nico's POV

Nico was led to the center of the huge throne room. He had no idea where Kole was, and he couldn't hear her.

"Now, my death prince, I am in need of an army, and I've decided some of your zombies fit the bill. So if you could just go ahead and get me some." Lyssa crooned.

"No way in Hades am I helping you." Nico hissed.

"Aw, that's a shame."

"Go to Tartarus." He spat.

"Let's see if I can convince you." Lyssa's laugh echoed through the whole room.

A scream came from behind Nico. "Kole?" He spun around, taking a step toward the sound.

"Nico!"

He turned the other way, but as soon as he did another cry came from behind him. "What are you doing to her?" Nico yelled into the air.

"I'm convincing you!" Came Lyssa's disturbing answer. Another scream.

"I'm fine Nico! You can't help her!" Kole's voice. "Just ignore the-" a cry of pain cut her off. Nico covered his ears, trying to shut it out like she'd said, but he couldn't leave her to be tortured, forget what he had to do stop it.

He felt the blindfold loosen, and he shook his head vigorously until it came off. He spun around quickly, trying to find Kole. She knelt in a shaft of light in front of him, hands chained to a metal spike driven into the ground in front of her.

"Now, until you change your mind, I'll be keeping her with me." Lyssa smiled, tossing a knife from hand to hand.

"Nico. You can't help her. Imagine what she wants to do with those things." Kole said evenly, meeting his eyes.

"She'll kill you!" He protested.

"She won't give up her leverage until she has what she wants." Kole pointed out reasonably.

"Oh but even without the girl, I still have what you want. Freedom. And then I the world will become my domain, and everyone will go insane, swallowed by madness!" Lyssa said slowly.

Nico stared at Kole, a war raging in his mind. This was why he'd been so wary of letting himself care about someone.

"I won't help you." Nico said steadily.

"Fine. Enjoy your cell!" Lyssa waved a hand, and Nico was back in his cell. He could make out Kole's faint yells, echoing through their prison.

He beat the stone walls of his cell with his fists, hollering in protest.

Eventually he gave up, and backed away from the wall. Standing in the middle of his cell, arms hanging limply at his sides.

"I'll help you."


	24. Chapter 24

**Sorry for taking so long and this is like the shortest chapter ever, but its something, right? New one out this week, I swear on the Styx. XD Life's been cray cray, but I have time to write now, so expect more tort-I mean chapters! **

**Shoutout to Snow h- suncl- Snowy! Thanks for the reviews!**

**Please review ideas or suggestions, because at the moment we're headed for an unhappy ending...**

Nico's POV

Seconds after the words left Nico's mouth, a black cloud of smoke filled his cell, his captor at the center. "I knew you'd come to your senses."

"I have conditions, though. When I'm done doing your job, you let the both of us go. And for the whole amount of time it takes for me to do it, you have to let Kole stay with me all the time." Nico growled. "And you don't harm a hair on her head." He could at least make the best of the situation.

"Agreed."

"Swear on the Styx."

"I swear to your terms. Now, let's get to work!"

Kole's POV

As soon as the witch left Kole in the cell, she started worrying about Nico. At least if the witch was torturing her, she knew Nico was safe. But with the witch gone, there was nothing Kole could do but sit and nurse her wounds, wondering what Nico was going through.

What seemed like hours later, Lyssa returned and cuffed Kole's wrists and ankles, latching a collar around her neck and dragging her by the chains. Kole was locked in a tiny room, with a three stone walls and a glass one that gave a fantastic view of another empty cell identical to hers. The chain attached to her collar was nailed to the wall, so she could still walk around the whole cell but not get out of it. She sat against the wall her chain was on, panting from the exertion of walking so far.

Kole wondered what was going to happen. They had no way of getting out of this hole, didn't even know where they were and neither did anyone else. Luckily, she had a plan, albeit a long shot, but still a plan.

Unfortunately it could only save one of them. And she wasn't about to leave Nico there.

**Hope you enjoyed it! Or did I just make it worse...**


	25. Chapter 25

**Ta da! Longish chapter! In which there is a scary moment, an oh no moment, an oh yes moment and an uh oh moment. Enjoy! Review for more words to read!**

**~oh yes. There shall be either three or four more chapters before the Big Escape you've all been waiting for...~**

Nico's POV

Nico was walking down the beach at Camp Half Blood, heading towards the big rock where Kole sat. She was perched on top of the rock, her knees pulled up close to her. She wore a long white Greek style gown, and a gold circlet around her forehead. The setting sun illuminated her face, and she looked like a goddess. As Nico approached the rock, he found himself staring, admiring her: the way her hair whipped around her face, the way her face glowed in the light of the sun, how brightly her eyes shone. He climbed the rock and sat beside her, taking her hand, but when he did, he realized her hands were shackled to the rock. Kole turned toward him, sorrow in her face. She looked at him so sadly, it broke his heart.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Nico tried to ask. But he couldn't speak. He could only watch as the tide came in rapidly, higher than it should've, covering the rock. Nico frantically tried to pull against the thick iron chains holding Kole against the rock, but she shook her head at him. She kissed his forehead gently, meeting his eyes, then pushed him away.

He tried to scream, to protest, but he was carried away by the water and could only watch as Kole was swallowed by the water, taken from her favorite place into the cold darkness.

When the water receded, the rock was empty. Nico stood safely on the beach, but Kole was gone. Nico searched the boulder, the beach, the water. But there was nothing to be found, the water was peaceful, waves barely lapping the shore.

And Kole, was gone. Lost to him forever.

Nico's eyes flew open, his heart racing in terror. The dream faded away, and Nico sat up, pulling his knees against his chest. He had raised the dead for hours, watching as they were sustained by Lyssa's magic, but then he'd blacked out from pure exhaustion.

Nico found himself in a small cell. Empty of anything interesting, with an invisible door that he had no chance of finding. Just like the one he was kept in before. But there was one difference. This one had a single glass wall, that looked into the cell opposite him. And in that cell…

"Oh my gods." Nico shot to his feet and ran to the glass wall, leaning heavily against it to support himself. He peered through the glass, his eyes resting on the small figure curled in the corner. "Kole!" Nico banged on the glass with balled fists.

The girl stirred, sitting up and seeing him. Her eyes widened and she shot to her feet. Kole raced towards the wall. The chain around her neck kept her from coming all the way to it, but she reached out her hand and pressed it against the glass. Relief showed in every line of her body as she studied Nico, checking him for injuries. She tried to say something but Nico couldn't hear her through the glass. He shrugged his shoulders sadly, but Kole did something else. She shaped her fingers into a heart and pressed it to the glass. Nico smiled weakly and did the same, his much larger heart encircling hers entirely. Kole smiled bravely at him, and he couldn't help but admire her strength. Through all this, she still had hope that they could get out of this mess.

Kole tapped the glass a bit so Nico's eyes went back to her face, and she mouthed _we'll be okay. I swear you'll get out of this alive._ Nico tried a smile, but failed miserably. Only after Kole started trying to tell him something else did he realize she'd said 'you' and not 'us'…

Kole's POV

Kole knew that Lyssa did not plan on letting them go. She knew that she'd sworn to let them go when Nico finished her job, but somehow Kole thought that 'let us go' had a different meaning then they thought it did, something much more painful and less enjoyable that would probably end up with them in the Underworld the hard way. And that was why she needed to save Nico. And she had a plan to do it.

When she finally convinced Nico to go to sleep, that she'd be fine here, she sat against the wall of her cell opposite the glass one. Her jeans were shredded and rather bloody, and her tank top from Aphrodite that she was still wearing had slashes across the back and burn marks all over it, also covered in blood. She was absolutely grimy. What she wouldn't give for a Roman bath. Or a Roman friend. Or a Greek friend. Or pretty much anything good.

For her plan to work, Kole had to wait until Lyssa dragged them with her on her conquest to take over the world. Which she knew wouldn't happen until after Nico finished raising her army, and she didn't know if he could handle that. He would have to get through it though, there was nothing she could do to help him. And then, all Kole needed to do was ask Elle for some cookies, and they'd be just fine.

Kole went back to fiddling with the bolt attaching her chain to the wall. Her fingernails were shredded and bloody, but she had almost worked the screws out of the stone wall. After hours of twisting and pulling, she had six screws in her pocket. A single screw held the metal plate her chain was attached to on the wall, but she could easily yank it off with a tug. And now she had half of the things she needed for her escape plan.

But the hardest part was going to be staying alive until her plan could be put into action.

A few hours later, Lyssa appeared to take Nico back to 'work'. Though Kole protested, she knew it was useless. She just had to hope that he was strong enough to do it. While he was gone, she used one of her screws to scrape away at the glass, making a rectangular groove in the wall that would be big enough for her to crawl through. The glass was almost three inches thick, to thick for her to break, but she'd dealt with situations like this before. Capture, torture, imprisonment, that was her home turf.

As Kole scraped, she thought. She thought about what Nico would do if he knew about her plan. What he would do if her plan worked. But then she couldn't anymore. So instead of thinking, she remembered.

_"__Wanna go to the canoe lake with me? I have class." Nico asked._

_"__Duh!" Kole grabbed his hand and dragged him off, laughing. Nico smiled widely. _

_When they reached the docks, they were way early. Apparently Nico's class wasn't for another hour, but that didn't bother Kole. She simply pushed Nico off the edge of the dock. He yelped and just managed to grab her hand and pull her in before he hit the water. They made a huge splash when they crashed into the warm water. Kole propelled herself to the surface easily, but Nico was clumsy and slow in keeping himself above the water._

_"__You sir, need swimming lessons." Kole laughed as Nico spit out water. _

_"__I am a great swimmer, thank you very much."_

_Kole raised an eyebrow and ducked under water. A moment later, Nico yelped as he was pulled underwater. He struggled against the girl who pulled him down, and after he kicked her in the face, Kole let go. They both broke the surface gasping, and Kole laughed and cupped her face where Nico had kicked her._

_"__Oh gods are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Nico said frantically._

_"__I'm fine, Nico!" Kole laughed. Nico brushed his thumb over the small growing bruise forming on her jaw. Then Kole jabbed him in the stomach and started tickling him. Nico laughed uncontrollably, and Kole ended up having to drag him up to shore. She dropped him on the grassy shore and started walking away, shaking water off herself. Nico took a deep breath, trying to control his laughter._

_"__Where are you going?" He called, pushing himself into a sitting position._

_"__To get my swimsuit so I can teach you how to swim right." Kole called over her shoulder. "And I advise you do the same." _

Kole had had so much fun that day. It had been a total blast, even though it had ended with both of them covered in mud and having to hike through the forest. She couldn't help but smile, remembering it. And that memory, gave her hope.

And she knew then, that somehow, they'd get through this. She didn't know how, but she knew that they had to. Because it was always worth getting through the problems so that she could have memories like that, so that she could make people smile.

Kole worked at the glass with renewed vigor. She knew that she was going to have to have this window done if she planned on keeping Nico alive through the time it took to raise an army.

**DA DA DAAAAAA**


	26. Chapter 26

**Sorry for taking a bazillion years. Happy Thanksgiving to any USAans. Because that is a term. Yes. Eight reviews for a new chapter! Teehee. **

Nico's POV

Nico had never seen so many risen spirits and skeletons in all his life. Even in his father's palace. And they all came from him. His chants, reanimation spells, bringing them to life and Lyssa's magic multiplying and keeping them alive.

He could feel the dead being taken from his control soon after he summoned them, sustained by the goddess' power rather than his. Nico had been working for hours. Lyssa was determined to work him until he physically couldn't go on. He slumped to his knees, barely able to hold his head up. Lyssa glanced over at him from her throne, and snapped her fingers sharply. Nico was dimly aware of being back in his cell before he blacked out.

He wandered aimlessly through dream after dream, not even able to comprehend what he was seeing. What little part of his consciousness was active was vaguely aware that he'd probably reverted to the near shadow state he'd been in after the war. He didn't know if he could get through this army raising even if he tried to. But he had to, if he was going to get Kole out of this mess. He'd gotten her in, and he was determined to get her out.

"Nico."

He heard a soft voice, breaking through the haze of dreams.

"Nico, wake up."

He tried desperately to gather his consciousness enough to open his eyes. When he did, his fuzzy vision took in a comforting sight. Kole's anxious face hovered above him, and when he looked up at her, she broke into a grin and hugged him.

"Thank the gods! I thought you were dead!" She cried.

"C-can't breathe!" Nico groaned. Kole released him, and he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Wait, how are you in here? The wall…" He looked over her shoulder to see a roughly rectangular section of glass missing out of the wall, then he noticed the screw sitting at the base of the wall.

"Forget that. Eat this." Kole shoved some ambrosia at him, and he choked it down. Already he could feel his energy returning. "Do you feel any better?" Kole asked, her eyes wide and hopeful.

"Yup. How in Hades did you get that?" Nico asked.

"I have my ways…" she said, quirking her eyebrows.

"You never cease to amaze me." Nico chuckled.

ß-now to skip three days to get to the actiony part cuz this is boring-à

Nico had had barely four hours of rest since the last time Lyssa had forced him to raise her soldiers.

But the goddess obviously had no respect for the need of sleep, for she came bursting into Nico and Kole's now combined cell, beaming in a most disturbing way.

"At last, my army is complete! Now, I will take my two little rats with me on my conquest of the entire universe!" Lyssa announced. Kole's eyes shone with fright, but she held her emotions in check, facing the madwoman bravely, appearing undaunted.

"But then you'll let us go, right? You swore." Kole reminded her.

"Oh yes. You will indeed be, er, _let go._" The goddess said. "Now anyway, back to my conquest of the universe!" She snapped her fingers sharply, and uncomfortable tight straitjackets appeared on both demigods. Another snap, and they were above ground, in an enormous, open back Greek chariot. They were chained, each to an opposite side, with heavy chains around their waists. Kole actually grinned when she saw the pale gray sky, filled with heavy clouds and took a breath of the rain scented air. Seeing her smile again made Nico feel like his heart had begun beating after weeks of being cold and dead.

They were in a neat park, the chariot sitting on a circle of concrete that was surrounded by tall, bare trees and picnic tables. The winter air chilled Nico, and his warm breath hung in the air. Kole shivered, her face pale and sallow from a week of losing blood and eating little.

The goddess barked a command at her skeleton horses and they charged straight into the crowd of people hovering at the edge of the park. They fled in all directions, screaming in terror. As the skeleton horses ran, hundreds of zombies came from the earth all around the chariot.

"You raised all of those?!" Kole asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Nico winced a bit. Kole's face morphed into a mixture of awe and disgust. Nico wished she didn't have to see all that. She probably thought he was creepy. But he had bigger problems to worry about at the moment. Like a psychopath goddess attempting world domination, for starters.

"So do you have a plan?" Nico hollered over the wind rushing through the chariot as they raced towards the Empire State Building.

"Only if you can take control of all these zombies." Kole yelled back.

"We'd have to distract Lyssa, so her hold over them is weakened!" Nico told her.

"Okay, leave that to me. When we stop, I'll distract her, you take over the zombies. I have a way to get us out of the straitjackets, but can you do the other part?"

"Anything for you." Nico winked.

Not even half a minute later, they were somehow zooming through the streets of New York. Kole gaped. The chariot screeched to a stop, almost flipping over. The goddess let out an inhuman screech and blasted a bolt of magic into the air. It expanded and became an enormous purple bubble surrounding the entire city of Manhattan, going high enough that it even enveloped Mount Olympus. Another blast of magic hit the paved road in front of the chariot and a purple and black wave of mist grew from it. As the cloud grew, tendrils of the smoky substance chased after mortals, making them flee their cars and run for their lives.

Those unlucky enough to get caught breathed in the smoke and collapsed on the ground, and their bodies writhed and thrashed. Nico kept his eye on one man, who appeared to be a business man, wearing a suit. The poor mortal lay still after a whole minute of thrashing, but after a moment he started running at an inhuman speed, crashing into things and attacking people, jumping on them and biting arms, necks, fingers, anything he could reach.

Nico shuddered. The mist made the people go mad. A bubble of safety surrounded the chariot, though. The goddess laughed a sharp, hysterical sounding laugh. With a wave of her hand, Nico and Kole were free from their bonds.

"Run, if you like. Your choice is eternal bondage to me, or being taken over by madness." Lyssa teetered like a drunk.

"No. I am done listening to other people. You don't get to decide what my life will be like, or force me to choose between choices of your invention. I will make my own path! I get to choose what I want!" Kole shouted at the immortal. The goddess stumbled back a step, as though Kole had struck her.

"I am in control of you! I am!" Lyssa screamed, but she sounded more like she was convincing herself.

"No! I want a cookie! Let me talk to Elle. Can I talk to Elle?!" Kole hollered, stepping closer and getting in the goddess' face. Nico looked at her like she was crazy, but she waved for him to take control of the zombies.

Nico focused his energy and reached out his senses.

Kole's POV

The goddess clutched her head, screaming nonsense.

Kole kept screaming things about cookies, and Elle, and wanting to play. She thought back to the day she first was taken by Lyssa, when the goddess' image had shimmered dramatically and she'd screamed something about her name being Elle, and asking if she'd wanted cookies.

Finally, after five minutes of yelling, the goddess changed form. "MY NAME IS ELLE. Do you want some cookies?"

"Yes! Yes I want cookies, please get me some cookies right now!" Kole cried, relieved. "You can get some cookies right now, but only if you get rid of this cloud and all of these zombies."

A single wave of her hand, and the smoke disappeared from sight, and the mortals returned to normal. Nico quickly dispersed the zombies and fell to his knees form exhaustion almost immediately after. Then the goddess switched back to her usual form.

"NO! NO, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Lyssa screamed, tearing her hair out.

Kole grinned triumphantly, and ran to Nico's side. "YOU DISGUSTING LITTLE WRETCH, YOU RUINED ALL OF MY PLANS!" Lyssa turned on Kole and blasted a bolt of her smoke right at Kole. The girl crumpled to her knees, covering her ears with her hands and screaming protests. Another blast of magic hit Nico, paralyzing him within a bubble of purple.

He could only watch Kole fight the madness trying to possess her, her slim body wracked with pain and tortured screams coming from her. Nico beat the magic walls with balled fists, protesting at the top of his lungs. And Lyssa looked over the scene triumphantly, grinning with a terrifying skull like expression.


	27. Chapter 27

**Soooooo sorry for taking so long ppls. I finally updated! i dont know if youre going to be happy about that or not though... Read and review and favorite and follow and all of those lovely thingss!**

Kole's POV

Kole curled into the fetal position, her hands over her ears in a desperate attempt to block out the hysterical voices bombarding her. She was sure they were fake, coming only from the goddess herself, but it was awful, whatever it was. Visions of death and torture filled her mind: nuclear bombs dropping on crowded cities, angry gods wreaking terror, ancient human sacrifices to the gods. Kole squeezed her eyes shut, even though she knew it wouldn't help. She was vaguely aware of Nico screaming and Lyssa laughing maniacally. She could practically feel herself losing her grip on sanity.

_No. I won't let her control me. I control me, and no one else does. And I don't want to lose what I finally found. I am not going to lose love. After all this time afraid I'd never find it, I am not ever going to let it go. _

She pictured Nico, his contagious smile which seemed only to be brought about by her. The feel of his lips on hers. The warmth of knowing that someone in this world actually, truly cared about her.

Kole's eyes flew open and she gasped. The visions and voices stopped as she got to her feet and glared at the goddess before her.

"I told you that you can not control me." she hissed. Lyssa's eyes widened as she stepped back uneasily.

"I do! I can! My power is stronger. A puny mortal cannot beat me!"

"Funny. I thought I just did." Kole tilted her head and adopted a curious expression.

Lyssa howled in outrage.

"Do you need a time out?" Kole asked.

"Stop! I do not understand this- these things you say to me!" Lyssa grabbed handfuls of her own raven hair.

"It's called sarcasm. People who are very sane and clever use it to make fun of idiots without them knowing. Does that help?" Kole grinned at the pathetic creature who was now sitting on the ground before her.

"Fine! If I can't control you, I can control him! He's been borderline insane his entire life!" Lyssa cackled. She pointed at Nico and the purple bubble around him disappeared.

Kole automatically started towards him, but he backed up. "No. Stay away from me. You have to run now while you have the chance. She's right; she'll be able to take over me far to easily. I don't want to hurt you Kole, please."

"But Nico..."

"Go!"

"I'm not going to leave you! I came to rescue you and that's exactly what I'm going to do." Kole blinked back tears.

"Aaaw, how sweet. The love birds don't want to DIE." Lyssa raised her hand and a purple flash of light came from her fingertips and hit Nico square in the chest. The light seemed to soak into him, and he immediately fell to his knees. He curled into a ball, rocking back and forth as he tried to fight off the madness. "In one short minute, he will become a ravaging monster. Just what's always been stuck inside them all these years. Tell her, my prince."

"They never really liked me. They all said they did, said that they accepted me no matter what I was. All those years, Percy hated me. Jason hated me. He said he'd be my friend, support me but no. Will Solace. He swore he'd be my friend. Then along came a new camper and he ran off with her, changing his mind and disappearing in seconds! And Bianca. She said she loved me. Said she'd take care of me forever. But as soon as she got the slightest chance, she left me! They all acted. They're all liars! LIARS!" Nico screamed. "And you." He turned to Kole. "You're no better then all of them. You tell me that you want to be friends. Just like all the rest. Then stupid Daniel comes along. And then you go of with him. I finally think I've won you over and then I go to work for Lyssa, and you come after, like the idiot you are. Then all you can think about is getting back to those idiots at camp. You're just another stupid immature Hermes kid! You could never care for me! No one can! I HATE YOU!"

"Nico, no! You don't really believe that! It's her magic, its taking over you. Fight it, Nico! Fight it!" Kole pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks. "That's not true! We all care about you, Nico."

Nico stood up. He was pale and haggard, dark circles under his eyes and his black hair greasy and hanging over his eyes. His clothes hung off his starved frame. The boy was terrifying.

Kole backed up a few steps as he approached her. He stopped mere inches from her, glaring at her with cold eyes. Nico towered over the small girl. She started backing away from him, her hand drifting towards her sword uneasily.

Nico backhanded her across the face.

Kole staggered back and fell to the ground, her hand cupping her face. "Nico, stop. You're stronger than her, come on!" she protested, pushing herself back to his feet. Nico's black sword materialized in his hand. Kole's eyes widened and she whipped out her own blade.

And just in time. Kole raised her sword just in time to block a blow from Nico that would've cleaved her in half. She could barely hold off the blow; he seemed to be unnaturally strengthened. It was all she could do to keep from being dismembered.

"Nico, stop this, please!" she parried against an impossibly fast strike. In a single swift movement, Nico disarmed her and pushed her against the storefront behind them, sword at her throat. Nico thrust out his free hand, and the earth trembled. Eleven skeleton arms broke the surface of the asphalt, and eleven skeletal warriors clawed their way to the surface. They each wielded enormous bone swords, stained with shades of red.

"You know what these are? These are the _telikos spartoi. _You remember the _spartus _we fought all that time ago? Frank had one with his spear? These are the eleven masters. Their used to be twelve, but it was killed by the original Perseus. He only survived because he had the blessing of Hera. Let's see how you can handle them, that should be fun!" Nico grinned and backed away, handing Kole her sword. The _spartoi _surrounded her.

"Nico! Whatever is about to happen, whatever you've done, I love you. You hear me? _I love you._" Kole faced the skeletons, barely holding them off with her glowing sword.

"Kole?" Nico stumble forward, almost landing on his face. "What-where are- Did I summon those?" Neither of them noticed Lyssa changing her magic staff into a five foot long perfectly silver sword.

"Nico! Yes! I knew you could do it! And yes, you did raise them. And it might be a good idea to unraise them before they kill us." Kole said uneasily. Nico stomped his foot, and the _spartoi _shrunk to piles of bones. Kole dropped her sword and ran to him. Seconds before she reached him, she stopped abruptly. Kole's eyes widened and she gasped, slowly looking down.

Looking down to see the twelve inches of silver metal protruding from her stomach.

**reviews might save her life. but you know, you can never really tell with those massive bloody stab wounds through stomachs.**

**Hermes: LET US BANISH HER TO TARTARUS ETERNALLY SHE HAS DONE UNSPEAKABLE THINGS TO OUR CHILDREN**

**Hades: I SECOND THAT**

**Zeus: Now, now. Calm down.**

**Hermes: She's writing about your kids next.**

**Zeus: THIS MORTAL HAS CROSSED THE LINE. SHE WILL BE BANISHED ETERNALLY TO TARTARUS.**

**Me: Calm down guys! she probably won't die! But you know, no promises here.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Here ya'all are! *please dont kill me* So one of my friends who reads this story asked me if i get a sad feeling creeping up on me when i think about this. i said no. mostly i just want to cackle and grin evilly**

Daniel's POV

Daniel was having a simply fantastic day. It was the middle of February, but of course inside Camp Half Blood the weather was perfect. And on top of that, his hair looked amazing. He'd styled it in only three hours: a record breaking time for him. He had a simple plan for the day: catch an Aphrodite girl.

When he reached the perfect pink cabin, the first girl he bumped into was Piper. He didn't really know much about her, but he knew she was hot and that's all he needed to know.

"How's it going, Pipes? Feel like basking in some sunlight?" He leaned against the fence and quirked his eyebrows at the girl.

"What is your problem?" Piper glared at him and wiped away a tear before pushing him aside and marching off.

"Okay..." Daniel pushed open the pristine white gate and threw open the door of the Aphrodite cabin. "Who wants a smokin hot date?" He leaned against the wall and flashed his brilliant smile at the girls inside. _I am so great. Seriously, I am a genius. _

They all started laughing.

"Hey. Sorry, they're laughing because they know they're not worthy to go anywhere with you. But I am. Because I am the most gorgeous here."

"And what, may I ask, is your name, my dove?" Daniel asked, looking the girl up and down.

"Drew. Now are we going to get out of this place or not?" The girl put a hand on her hip.

"You might want some sunglasses." Daniel grinned at her and held out his arm to escort her out of the cabin.

Hazel's POV

Hazel sat on her bunk in the Hades cabin, legs pulled up to her chest. They were burning Nico's shroud today. And Kole's. It had been almost three months since they'd disappeared, and no sign of them since. Hazel didn't want to burn them. She still had hope that they could find the demigods, that she could find her brother. But she knew it was useless. He could be anywhere in the world, and they had no idea where to look. Hazel buried her face in her hands, trying to keep back sobs.

"Hazel? You in here?" The door opened to reveal Frank. Hazel wiped away her tears and sat up, straightening her wrinkled shirt.

"Hey, you okay?" He crouched down beside her because he was too tall to sit on the bed. "Is it Nico?"

Hazel took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. "He's the only reason I'm here, Frank he's my brother I don't want to lose him! But I don't know what to do, he might already be dead and there's nothing I can do about it!" She lost it. Hazel practically fell into Frank's arms. He held her against him and she cried into his shoulder.

When she calmed down, she sat up and looked at Frank. He brushed away her tears gently. "It's okay. We'll find him. He's out there."

"I don't know Frank...He's been missing three months. What if-"

"Hey. Don't think like that. We'll find him." Frank said reassuringly. Hazel could almost believe him.

Piper's POV

Piper wished Jason was with her. Kole and Nico had been gone for so long, Chiron had finally resigned to burning their shrouds. She couldn't imagine what Hazel was feeling, if she was so upset about one of her best friends. It must be horrible to have her brother missing and probably dead. Piper was almost constantly finding tears on her cheeks that she didn't even notice.

Piper found herself in the woods, following a path to a place where she and Jason had gone once, under a wisteria tree beside a little stream. She pulled a drachma from her pocket and prayed that there was enough mist from the stream.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering." she tossed the coin into the mist. "Show me Jason at Camp Jupiter." A picture of Jason appeared in the mist. He seemed to be alone in a cabin, writing furiously on a long piece of parchment.

"Pipes! How are y- what's wrong?" He looked up at her with a concerned expression.

"W-we're burning Nico and Kole's shrouds tonight." Piper wiped her sleeve across her eyes.

"What?"

"Jason, they've been missing for three months."

"I'll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there Pipes." He waved his hand over the mist, leaving Piper to cry into her sweatshirt alone.

Travis/Connor's POVs

The Hermes cabin was boring without Kole. She'd really only been there for less time than she'd been missing, but it felt like someone had knocked out the floor of the normally lively cabin. Pranks and jokes were half-hearted and far in between. The edge of depression on the Hermes cabin affected the whole camp, which normally relied on the Hermes cabin for the carefree attitude they normally had.

Neither Travis and Connor nor anyone else in the Hermes cabin knew of the shroud burning yet. They were each still clinging to the hope that their sister would return.

"Travis, Connor, Chiron said he needs you in the Big House immediately." Katie Gardner poked her head into the Hermes cabin.

"Thanks, flower. We'll be right there." Travis called.

"Don't call me that." The door slammed.

"Yes Chiron?" Travis asked. He and his brother stood on the porch beside Chiron's spot.

"Well, I don't know how to say this to you." Chiron started. He always knew what to say. This was new. " We're burning the shrouds of Nico di Angelo and Kole Evans tonight."

"What?!" Both brothers cried.

"I'm sorry." Chiron disappeared into the Big House. Travis and Connor stood there on the porch, unspeaking, for a lot of minutes.

"All Hermesians please pay attention to my brother here." Connor hollered over the noise of thirty kids.

Travis took a deep breath. "Tonight at the campfire, we're burning Nico and Kole's shrouds."

The Hermes cabin exploded into noise.

Daniel's POV

Daniel returned from a long walk on the beach with his new girlfriend. With a glowing red hand print on his face. Who knew an Aphrodite girl could slap so hard?

Linebreak

No POV

That night, a brazier at Camp Half Blood burned green with Greek fire. Two magnificent shrouds woven with nearly as much skill as the goddess Athena herself lay beside the fire. Nearly one hundred solemn and upset demigods sat in the amphitheater around the brazier, ready to burn the shrouds that signified the death of their friends.

Chiron stepped forward and raised the first shroud: a black tapestry with an enormous silver skull woven into it.

"WAIT!"

All eyes turned to the Iris message projected image that had appeared beside the fire. The image showed a young son of Hades.

"Nico?!" Hazel shot to her feet.

"I'm near Central Park! Look for signs of destruction and send some people here as soon as possible! Kole's hurt and...and it doesn't look good." Nico gulped.

Hazel, Piper, Jason, Frank, and the Stolls disappeared within seconds.

**Wow... Now even i'm depressed... i don't know if i can even- wut is happening**


	29. Chapter 29

**I'm bad at writing this kinda thing, but here goes. **

Nico's POV:

_"Nico! Whatever is about to happen, whatever you've done, I love you. You hear me? I love you." Kole faced the skeletons, barely holding them off with her glowing sword._

_"Kole?" Nico stumble forward, almost landing on his face. "What-where are- Did I summon those?" Neither of them noticed Lyssa changing her magic staff into a five foot long perfectly silver sword._

_"Nico! Yes! I knew you could do it! And yes, you did raise them. And it might be a good idea to unraise them before they kill us." Kole said uneasily. Nico stomped his foot, and the spartoi shrunk to piles of bones. Kole dropped her sword and ran to him. Seconds before she reached him, she stopped abruptly. Kole's eyes widened and she gasped, slowly looking down._

_Looking down to see the twelve inches of silver metal protruding from her stomach._

Nico's sword was in his hand the instant he registered what was happening. Another instant and the goddess Lyssa was in a place where she wouldn't be heard from in a long, long time.

Kole stumbled forward, her hands over the gaping wound in her side and blood spilling between her fingers. Nico caught her as she fell, lowering her to the ground gently.

"N-Nico..." Kole muttered weakly.

"Shhh. Don't talk. I'm gonna get help." Nico tossed a drachma from his pocket through the steam coming off of a puddle of acid on the sidewalk. "Show me Chiron at Camp Half Blood."

A blurry vision of the amphitheater shimmered into view. It looked like they were burning shrouds...Nico ignored whatever he was seeing.

"WAIT!"

He was vaguely aware of his sister shooting to her feet and saying something, but it didn't register. "I'm near Central Park! Look for signs of destruction and send some people here as soon as possible! Kole's hurt and it... it doesn't look good."

The vision dissipated when someone on the other side closed it. Nico turned his attention back to Kole.

"Nico. I don't think-" Nico cut her off.

"No. Don't even say that. You're going to be fine. Perfectly fine. Do you hear me? You've survived worse than this before. Remember the snake king? You can get through this. You have to. I can't- I can't lose you too." His voice broke.

"The Keres...Your hair was sparkly for three days!" she laughed, but it became a hacking cough. Her eyes started drifting closed. Her entire shirt was soaked in blood, front and back. Nico stroked her hair away from her sweaty face, trying to keep back the panic bubbling inside him. He couldn't lose her, not when he'd finally found someone to love, to love him. Not when it was his fault she was here in the first place. She couldn't die, he needed her, he didn't want to live without her, like he used to. What was he purpose of this life, if there was no one to love? Everyone he cared for was torn from him, ripped away and held by the one thing he thought he could control: death. His one strength, his heritage, the palace where he belonged, was the one that took everything he loved.

"No. Don't close your eyes, look at me. Hey, look at me." Nico said, and undertone of hysteria in his voice.

Kole's POV

She could feel nothing but pain, liquid fire rushed through her veins. She didn't want to leave Nico, she didn't want to die. But oh, the pain. Her eyes slowly drifted closed.

Nico's POV

Nico held Kole's limp body against him. "No, no, don't leave me." He whispered desperately. His trembling fingers brushed the hair back from her face. Inches separated girl's deep brown eyes opened and she studied his face carefully. She put her bloody palm against his cheek and pulled him into a kiss. Sweet and soft. When Nico pulled back, her breath was still. Her eyes stared unfocused at the cloudy sky. A sob escaped from him. Nico had never been a crier, he'd always kept his emotions to himself, never let anyone see what was truly going on inside of him. But now, he couldn't stop it. It was all to much to bear. His shoulders shook violently, an endless flood of tears streaming down his cheeks. What was the purpose of it all? She was gone. He wished he was gone. It should've been him, he should be the one cold and limp, not his one love.

No POV

Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel and the Stolls ran through central park, narrowly avoiding trees as they sped blindly along. They reached a clearing, at the center of which was a cement fountain. Puddles of purple acid dotted the sidewalk and small fires burned through the bushes. And beside the fountain, near the center of the clearing, sat Nico, hunched over the limp form of the daughter of Hermes. Piper's hands flew over her mouth, not able to mask her cry of grief. She dropped to her knees, silent tears streaming down her face incessantly. Jason knelt beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. For once, she found no comfort in his embrace.

Hazel first reaction was relief. Her brother was alive, and well. But then she saw his face. the grief showing in every line of his body. The tears flooding down his cheeks. She ran to him, Frank following a few feet behind. Hazel put a hand on her brothers shoulders, kneeling down beside him. Nico turned from the body before him and leaned into his sister.

Travis and Connor stopped at the edge of the clearing, trying to comprehend the scene before them.

"No. She can't be dead. She can't be dead!" Connor shook his head violently.

"Who did this? Who?" Travis demanded, marching over to Nico. "Nico, who did this?!"

"Someone who's in Tartarus and won't be returning anytime soon." Nico growled, roughly wiping away tears.

?Unknown POV?

The spirit of Kole Evans stood before the judges in the Underworld.

"I rule for Elysium."

"I second."

"I third."

"Judgement passed."

Somewhere far away, a most evil being watched the judgement through a mirror. "Yes, this spirit shall do nicely. Resilient, stubborn. She will be my tool. My weapon of mass destruction."


	30. Chapter 30

**Hola my readers! I guess this is goodbye...**

**there shall be a sequel titled: Forever and Always**

**so that should be out within a week(ish) review some things you want to see in the sequel, anything you liked loved or hated from my debut story and yeah! Thanks for all the reviews, reads, and follows and I hope t see you guys reading the follow up. ^-^ **

**Gezundheit out**


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